BV  4655  .B63  1889 
Boardman,  George  Dana,  1828 

1903. 
The  Ten  Commandments 


? 


--! 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

A   COURSE   OF   LECTURES 


DELIVERED   BEFORE 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  PENRSYLVANIA 


BY 

GEORGE  DANA  BOARDMAN, 

Author  of  "Studies  in  the  Creative  Week,"  "Studies  in  the  Model  Prayer, 
"Epiphanies  of  the  Risen  Lord,"  "Studies  in  the  Mountain  Instruc- 
tion," "The  Divine  Man"  (Vol.  L),  Etc. 


He  wrote  upon  the  tables  the  words  of  the  covenant,  the  ten  commandments 

Exodus  xxxiv,  28. 


PHILADELPHIA  : 

A>IERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY, 

1420  Chestnut  Street. 


Eiit  red,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S89,  by  the 

A:>rERICAN   BAPTIST   PUBLICATION  SOCIETY, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


TO 
YOUNG  MEN  AND   YOUNG  WOMEN 


THESE  STUDIES   IN 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

ARE  RESPECTFULLY  OFFERED. 


PEEFATOKY  NOTE. 

In  the  autumn  of  1888,  the  Provost  and  Deans  of  tlie 
Faculties  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  honored 
the  writer  with  the  request  to  deliver  before  the 
students  "  a  series  of  Sunday  Afternoon  Addresses 
upon  Religious  Topics." 

In  accedini>-  to  this  request,  the  writer,  believing  the 
Ten  Commandments  to  be  the  foundation-stones  of 
Authoritative  Morality  or  True  Society,  selected  them 
for  the  theme  of  his  lectures. 

Tliese  Commandments,  being  in  their  nature  so  fun- 
damental, germinal,  and  immortal,  have,  of  course, 
occupied  much  of  the  writer's  reflections  during  a  min- 
istry of  more  than  thirty  years.  Accordingly,  lie  feels 
justified  in  incorporating  into  this  book  certain  thoughts 
and  words  which  have  appeared  elsewhere. 

The  Scriptural  citations  are  almost  uniformly  from 
the  Revised  Version. 

In  venturing  to  send  forth  this  volume,  the  author 
liumbly  prays  that  Almighty  God  may  be  pleased  to 
bless  it  to  the  moral  elevation  of  the  young  people  of 
Christendom. 

G.  D.  B. 

Philadelphia,  March  Second,  1S89. 


CONTENTS, 


I.- 

— Intkoductory, 

Exodus  xx,  1. 

PAGE 
9 

II.- 

—The  First  Commandment 

Exodus  xx,  2,  3. 

27 

III.- 

-The  Second  Commandment,     .        .        . 
Exodus  xx,  4-6. 

51 

IV.- 

-The  Third  Commandment,      .        .        .        . 
Exodus  xx,  7. 

81 

V.- 

-The  Fourth  Commandment,    .        .        .        . 
Exodus  xx,  8-11. 

109 

VI.- 

-The  Fifth  Commandment,       .       .        .        , 
Exodus  xx,  12. 

147 

VII.- 

-The  Sixth  Commandment,       .... 
Exodus  xx,  13. 

175 

VIIL- 

-The  Seventh  Commandment, 
Exodus  xx,  14. 

209 

IX.- 

-The  Eighth  Commandmiij^t,    .... 
Exodus  xx,  15. 

245 

X.- 

-The  Ninth  Commandiment,      .... 
Exodus  xx,  16. 

275 

XI.- 

-The  Tenth  Commandment,      .... 
Exodus  xx,  17. 

303 

XII.- 

-The  Lord's  Summary  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments,         

Matthew  xxii,  35-40  ;  Mark  xii,  28-31. 

333 

Index 

of  Topics, 

367 

Index 

of  Principal  Scriptukes,        .... 

371 

Index 

OF  Principal  Authors, 

7 

375 

I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 


God  spake  all  these  words,  saying. 

Exodus  xx,  1 


I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Inaugurating,  as  we  now  do,  a  series  of 
studies  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  it  is  proper 
that  our  fii-st  study  should  be  of  an  introductory 
nature.  . 

Recall,  then,  first  of  all,  some  of  the  circum- 
stances under  which  the  Ten  Commandments  were 
originally  proclaimed. 

Go  we  back  then  millenniums  Into  the  venerable  Mount  Sinai. 
past — precisely  how  long  ago  we  know  not,  say, 
some  thirty-three  centuries — and  stand  with  ancient 
Israel  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai.  We  are  on  a 
sandy  plateau  some  four  thousand  feet  above  the 
Mediterranean  ;  a  plain  say  two  miles  long  and  half 
a  mile  wide,  large  enough  to.  afford  standing  room 
for  more  than  two  millions  of  people.  Abruptly 
towering  some  twenty-two  hundred  feet  above  this 
plateau  is  a  huge  granite  mountain  peak — Isolated, 
precipitous,  fissured,  altar-shaped ;  It  Is  the  moun- 
tain of  Jehovah's  law,  the  sublime  throne  from 
which  the  King  of  kings  proclaimed  his  Ten  Com- 
mandments, or  Words  of  Covenant  with  his  people. 
Here,  amid  these  frowning  crags  and  awful  wilds, 

Where  all  around,  on  mountain,  sand,  and  sky,  Keble's  "Chris- 

God's  chariot  wheels  have  left  distinctest  trace,  '^**°  Year." 

11 


12  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Exod.  iii,  1.        Moses  had  kept  the  flock  of  his   father  in   law, 
Exod.  xxiv,  18;  the  pHest  of  Midian;  here  he  twice  fasted  forty 
iKiugsxix,i-i4.  clays  and  nights;  here  Elijah  found  refuge  from 
Gal.  i,  15-17.        the  wrath   of   Jezebel ;   here  Paul,  when  it   had 
pleased  God  to  reveal  his  Son  in  him,  spent  three 
years  in  preparing  for  his  majestic  calling;  and 
here,  as  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  One  greater  than 
Matt,  iv,  1, 2.       laAvgiver  and  prophet  and  apostle  betook  himself 
that,  amid  the  memories  of  the  mount  of  smoke 
and  thunder  and  law,  he  might  equip  himself  for 
the  mighty  task  of  taking  on  his  own  head  Sinai's 
burden  and  doom. 
The    Solemn       And  now  recall  the  solemn  preparations  for  the 
fions^**^^"  promulgation  of  the   great   law.     The   mediation 
Exod.  xix,  1-25.    ^^  ;^Qgeg  the  man  of  God  between  Jehovah  on  the 
mountain  and  Israel  in  the  plain ;  the  divine  mes- 
sage to  the  people,  saying :  "  Ye  have  seen  what  I 
did  unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bare  you  on 
eagles'  wings,  and  brought  you  unto  myself;  now 
therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed,  and 
keep   my  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be   a   peculiar 
treasure  unto  me  from  among  all  peoples ;  for  all 
the  earth  is  mine ;  and  ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  king- 
dom of  priests,  and  an  holy  nation ";  the  response 
of  the  people,  saying :  "  All  that  Jehovah   hath 
spoken  we  will  do  ";  the  divine  mandate  that  the 
people  should  undergo  ceremonial  purification  for 
two  days ;  the  barricading  of  the  holy  mount,  lest 
any  one,  fascinated   by  the   awful   glory,  should 
touch  it,  and  perish;  the  third  morning,  ushered 
in  by  lightnings,  and  thunders,  and  thick  cloud, 
and  voice  of  trumpet  exceeding  loud  and  waxing 


INTRODUCTORY.  13 

louder  and  louder ;  the  quaking  mountain ;  the 
smoke  of  Sinai  ascending  as  the  smoke  of  a  fur- 
nace, because  of  Jehovah's  descent  upon  it  in 
flame;  the  trembling  people; — all  this  made  the 
preparation  for  the  delivery  of  the  law  on  Sinai  a 
scene  of  unparalelled  sublimity. 

O  God,  when  thou  wentest  forth  before  thy  people,  i*8.  Ixviii,  7,  8. 

When  thou  didst  march  through  the  wilderness ; 

The  earth  trembled, 

The  heavens  also  dropped  at  the  presence  of  God  : 

Even  yon  Sinai  trembled  at  the  presence  of  God, 

The  God  of  Israel. 

And   now   listen   to   the   august    promulgation  The  Ten  Com- 
itself :  God  spake  all  these  words,  saying  :  exS!x?,\-2i: 

I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 

Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me. 

Thou  shalt  not^  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image, 
nor  the  likeness  of  any  form  that  is  in  heaven  above, 
or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water 
under  the  earth:  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself 
unto  them,  nor  serve  them:  for  I  Jehovah  thy  God 
am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me  ;  and  shelving 
mercy  unto  thousands,  of  them  thai  love  me  and  keep 
my  commandments. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God 
in  vain :  for  Jehovah  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that 
taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

Remember  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work:  but  the 
seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God;  in 


14  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thoUj  nor  thy  son,  nor 
thy  daughter,  thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant, 
nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy 
gates:  for  in  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the 
seventh  day :  wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  sabbath 
day,  and  hallowed  it. 

Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother:  that  thy  days 
may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  Jehovah  thy  God 
giveth  thee. 

Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 
Thou  shall  not  commit  adultery. 
Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy 
neighbour. 

Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  house,  thou 
shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  wife,  nor  his  man- 
servant, nor  his  maidservant,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass, 
nor  anything  that  is  thy  neighbour'' s. 
Terror  of  the       Such  were  some  of  the  circumstances  attending 
eop  e.         ^j^g  original  promulgation  of  the  Ten  Command- 
Exod.  XX,  18-  ments.      No  wonder  that  when  the  people  heard 
these  words  of  Jehovah,  proclaimed  amid  the  light- 
nings and  thunderings  and  the  voice  of  the  trum- 
pet and  the  smoke  of  the  mountain,  they  trembled, 
and  stood  afar  off,  and  cried  to  Moses,  saying. 
Speak  thou  with  us,  and  we  will  hear :  but  let  not 
God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die.     No  wonder  that 
Heb.  xii,  21.       evcn  bravc  Moses  himself  exclaimed,  I  exceedingly 
s  u  b  s  e  q  uent  ^^ar  and  quake. 
History  of       Before  leaving  this  part  of  our  subject,  it  will  be 
loguo.  interesting  to  trace,  so  far  as  we  can,  the  subse- 


INTRODUCTORY.  15 

quent  history  of  the  Ten  Commandments.     At  the  Exod.  xxxi,  18. 
end  of  the  forty  days'  communion  in  the   glory- 
cloud  on  Mount  Sinai,  Jehovah  gave  to  Moses  two 
tables  of  stone,  on  which  he  himself  had  inscribed 
with  his  own  hand  the  Ten  Commandments.     Of 
what  size  and  shape  these  tables  were  we  are  not 
told.      We  only  know  that  the  tables  were  the  Exod.  xxxii,  15, 
work  of  God,  and  the  writing  was  the  writing  of 
God.     Graven  upon  both  sides  of  the  two  tables,  on 
the  one  side  and  on  the  other,  were  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments  written.      It   is   interesting   to   recall 
that  the  writings  on  the  Babylonian   tablets  and 
Assyrian  monoliths  are  also  usually  inscribed  on 
both  sides.     Professor  Keil,  with  that  painstaking 
so  characteristic  of  German  scholarship,  has  calcu- 
lated that,  if  the  Sinaitic  tablets  were  twenty-seven 
inches  long  by  eighteen  inches  wide,  the  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy-two  Hebrew  words  of  the  Deca- 
logue could  easily  have  been  inscribed  on  the  four 
faces  of  the  two  tablets,  and  the  tablets  carried  in 
Moses'  hands.     But  to  resume  the  history.     When  Exod.  xxxii,  15- 
Moses   descended  from  his  mountain  communion 
with  Jehovah,  and  saw  his  people  worshiping  and 
dancing  aroimd  the  golden  calf,  his  anger  waxed 
hot,  and  he  hurled  the  two  tablets  out  of  his  two 
hands,  and  brake  them  at  the  foot  of  the  mount.     ^^         ^ 
After  Jehovah  had  punished  his  people  for  their  ^%.^^W 
idolatry,  he  bade  Moses  hew  two  tablets  of  stone,      'JK^^ 
on  which  he  himself  again  wrote  the  Ten  Com-     jH^  ^ 
mandments,   according    to    the    original    writing.     ^^^^ 
When    the    tabernacle    was    finished,   Moses,   by  Deut.x,5. 
divine  direction,  deposited  the  two  tables  in  that 


16  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

most  sacred  of  shrines,  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant. 
Here  they  remained,  sharing  the  wonderful  for- 
tunes and  misfortunes  of  the  ark,  borne  by  the 
priests  through  the  thirty-eight  years'  wilderness 
wandering,  transported  across  the  dry  bed  of  Jor- 
dan, conveyed  around  the  walls  of  Jericho,  en- 
shrined at  Shiloh,  captured  and  restored  by  the 
Philistines,  installed  in  the  house  of  Abinadad,  the 
house  of  Obed-edom,  and  the  house  of  David.     At 

1  Kings viii,  1-10,  length,  after  centuries  of  wandering,  the  ark,  with 
its  precious  relics  of  the  Sinaitic  tablets,  was  en- 
shrined by  Solomon  in  his  magnificent  temple. 
There,  hidden  from  mortal  eyes  in  the  solemn  se- 
clusion of  the  holy  of  holies,  they  remained  centuries 
S^l  'I  longer,  till,  in  the  year  598^ before  Christ,  Nebu- 
f  chadnezzar  captured  Jerusalem,  plundered  the  tem- 

ple, and  carried  the  sacred  furniture  and  vessels  as 
his  trophies  to  Babylon.  Were  the  tables  of  the 
Ten  Commandments  among  these  trophies?  We 
are  not  told.  But  I  fancy  they  must  have  been  : 
for  they  were  the  most  precious  treasures  in  the 
temple,  being  historic  relics  already  a  millennium 
old,  hewn  from  the  cliffs  of  Sinai,  inscribed  by 
Deity's  own  hand.  Who  knows  but  that  the 
archaeological  expedition,  so  enterprisingly  sent 
forth  by  our  own  University,  shall  yet  discover 
amid  the  ruins  of  Babylonia  the  identical  stone 
tablets  of  Sinai  ?  However  this  may  be,  one  thing 
is  certain,  and  let  us  thank  God  for  it :  the  Ten 
Commandments  are  the  most  ineffaceably  graven, 

8  Cor.  iii,  3.  whcu  they  are  written,  not  on  tables  of  stone,  but 
in  fleshy  tables  of  the  heart. 


INTRODUCTORY.  17 

And  this  leads  us  to  our  uext  point,  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Ten  Commandments. 

Observe  then,  first,  that  the  Decalogue  is  in  form  The  Deca- 
prohibitive.  Eight  of  the  Ten  Commandments  hibitive  id 
begrin  with  an  interdict:  "Thou  shalt  have  none  ®*"™' 
other  gods  before  me,"  "  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto 
thee  a  graven  image,"  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the 
name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain,"  "  Thou  shalt 
not  kill,"  "  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery," 
"  Thou  shalt  not  steal,"  "  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false 
witness,"  "Thou  shalt  not  covet."  How  sternly 
this  prohibitory  form  of  the  Decalogue  testifies  to 
the  story  of  man's  fall  !  It  forbids  man  doing 
this  thing  and  that  thing  and  the  other  thing, 
because  this  thing  and  that  thing  and  the  other 
thing  are  the  very  things  which  man  is  ever  prone 
to  do.  Thus  the  very  prohibition  is  itself  a  solemn 
witness  to  the  fall.  The  "  Thou  shalt  not "  of 
Sinai  attests  the  story  of  Satan's  entrance  into 
Eden.  Again,  these  prohibitings  of  the  Decalogue 
tend  to  awaken  conscience  :  By  the  law  is  the  Rom.  iv,  20. 
knowledge  of  sin ;  through  the  prohibition  comes 
the  sense  of  transgression.  AVith  what  philosophi- 
cal acumen  and  dramatic  picturesqueness  St.  Paul 
describes  tlie  arousing  function  of  the  law : 

I  had  not  known  sin,  except  through  the  law :  for  nom.  vii.  7-13. 
I  had  not  known  coveting,  except  the  law  had  said, 
*'  Thou  shalt  not  cov^et : "  but  sin,  finding  occasion,  Exod.  xx,  17. 
wrought  in  me  through  the  commandment  all  man- 
ner of  coveting  :  for  apart  from  the  law  sin  is  dead. 
And  I  was  alive  apart  from  the  law  once :  but 
when  the  commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  I 
died ;  and  the  commandment,  which  was  unto  life, 


18  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

this  I  found  to  be  unto  death :  for  sin,  finding 
occasion,  through  the  commandment  beguiled  me, 
and  through  it  slew  me.  So  that  the  law  is  holy, 
and  the  commandment  holy,  and  righteous,  and 
good.  Did  then  that  which  is  good  become  death 
unto  me  ?  God  forbid.  But  sin,  that  it  might  be 
shewn  to  be  sin,  by  working  death  to  me  through 
that  which  is  good ;  that  through  the  command- 
ment sin  might  become  exceeding  sinful. 

It  is  as  though  this  master  of  moral  psychology 
and  poetic  prose  had  said : 

As  the  plumb-rule  discloses  deviation  from  the 
perpendicular  or  physical  uprightness,  so  the  com- 
mandment discloses  deviation  from  rectitude  or 
moral  perpendicularity.  For  example  :  I  should 
not  have  known  what  coveting  means,  had  not  the 
'ijohn  iii,  4.  Tenth  Commandment  said,  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet." 
The  practical,  experimental  know  ledge  of  good  and 
evil  commonly  comes  through  the  sense  of  prohibi- 
tion.    Or,  as   my  friend  and  fellow   apostle  ex- 

R.  ni.  iv,  15.  presses  it,  "  Sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  law,"  sin 
is  lawlessness — that  is  to  say :  Sin  is  a  crossing  of 
the  boundary-line  marked  out  for  us  by  him  who 
made  us,  and  who,  having  made  us,  has  the  right 
to  appoint  our  limits.  And  the  very  fact  that  there 
are  these  limits  is  also  the  very  fact  which  makes  it 
possible  to  transgress  these  limits.  For,  as  I  have 
elsewhere  said,  where  no  law  is,  there  no  transgres- 
sion is ;  where  there  is  no  prohibition,  there  is  no 
disobedience.  Moreover,  the  prohibition  not  only 
discloses  sin :  it  also  even  incites  to  sin ;  the  very 
fact  that  there  are  limits  invites  to  transgression  of 

1  Cor. XV, 56.  those  llmits.  The  strength  of  sin  is  the  law;  the 
penal  power  of  disobedience  is  the  commandment. 
Now  as  Satan  took  advantage  of  the  forbidden  tree 

Gen.  iii,  1.  in  Edcu,  saying  unto  the  woman,  "  Yea,  hath  God 

said.  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  any  tree  of  the  garden?" 


INTRODUCIORY.  19 

and  thus  used  the  very  prohibition  as  an  incitement 
to  eat ;  so  Sin,  my  most  desperate  foe,  seized  the 
prohibition  "Thou  shalt  not  covet"  as  a  base  of 
military  operations  against  me,  and  overcame  me, 
inciting  in  me  all  manner  of  coveting  and  unlawful 
desires :  for  without  the  law  sin  is  dead,  apart  from 
the  commandment  sin  lies  dormant.  For  there 
^vas  once  a  time  when  I  was  alive  apart  from  law  ; 
it  was  when  I  was  an  infant,  unconscious  of  the 
commandment,  and  therefore  unconscious  of  sinful- 
ness. But  when  the  Decalogue  came,  when  my 
mother  read  to  me  the  commandment  "  Thou 
shalt  not  covet,"  that  prohibition  was  to  sin  w  hat 
warmth  is  to  the  viper;  Sin  revived,  awakening 
from  its  torpor ;  and  I  died,  losing  the  sen.«e  of 
innocence  and  divine  approval ;  ay, 

The  cords  of  death  compassed  me,  Ps.  cxvii,  3. 

And  the  pains  of  Sheol  gat  hold  on  me. 

And  so  the  very  commandment  which  God  had 
appointed  for  my  moral  advantage  and  eternal 
blessedness  proved  to  be  to  my  moral  disadvautaee 
and  eternal  ruiu ;  for  as  the  serpent  seized  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  forbidden  tree  to  beguile  our  common 
mother,  and  destroy  her,  so  Sin,  seizing  the  oppor- 
tunity of  the  prohibition  of  Sinai,  beguiled  me, 
and  through  it  slew  me,  murdering  my  sense  of 
innocence  and  moral  security.  But  do  not  misun- 
derstand me.  I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  the 
Decalogue  is  unholy,  or  that  the  Tenth  Command- 
ment is  unrighteous.  Whatever  blame  there  is 
attaches,  not  to  the  use  of  the  commandment,  but 
to  the  misuse  of  it;  for  we  know  that  the  law  is  iTim.  1,8,9. 
good,  if  a  man  use  it  lawfully,  as,  knowing  this, 
that  law  is  not  made  for  a  righteous  man,  but  for 
the  lawless  and  unruly,  for  the  ungodly  and  sin- 
ners, for  the  unholy  and  profane.  It  is  not,  then, 
the   commandment    which    slays    me — perish    the 


20 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


thought!  But  it  is  Sin  which  is  my  assassin, 
working  death  to  me  through  that  which  is  in 
itself  good,  seizing  the  wholesome  commandment 
as  an  occasion  of  guilt,  and  thus  proving  that  sin 
is  indeed  exceedingly  sinful. 


Tho  Deca- 
logue Af- 
fimative  in 
Spirit. 


Although  the  Decalogue  is  in  form  prohibitive, 
yet  in  spirit  it  is  affirmative.  Indeed,  a  negative 
pole  implies  a  positive.  The  prohibition  which  in 
the  letter  says  "  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods 
before  me,'^  in  the  spirit  also  says :  "  Thou  shalt 
have  me  for  thy  God.''  The  commandment  which 
says  in  form  *'  Thou  shalt  not  kill,"  says  in  fact 
"  Thou  shalt  love."  Not  that  the  Ten  Command- 
ments are  positive  enactments  in  the  sense  of  arbi- 
trary edicts :  they  are  rather  divine  arrangements 
in  the  sense  of  a  gracious  covenant.  Indeed,  the 
phrase  translated  the  "Ten  Commandments,"  liter- 
ally means  the  "  Ten  Words,"  and  is  so  rendered 
in  the  margin  of  both  the  Authorized  Version  and 
the  Revised  Version,  answering  to  the  Septuagint 
.  Version — <5^za  Xdyoo^^  transferred  into  our  Eng- 
lish language  as  the  Deca-Logue.  And  these  Ten 
Commandments,  or  Words,  are  often  expressly 
called  "the  Words  of  the  Covenant,"  "Tables  of 
Exod. xxxiT, 28  the  Covenant,"  etc.  For  example:  "He  wrote 
upon  the  tables  the  Words  of  the  Covenant,  the 
Ten  Commandments" — in  the  Hebrew,  "the  Ten 
Words."  Accordingly,  when  Jehovah  had  orally 
proclaimed  his  Ten  Words  amid  the  thunders  of 
Sinai,  he  summoned  Moses  up  to  himself  on  the 
holy  mount,  and  bade  him  take  the  book  of  the 
Heb. ix,  19, 20!  Covcuaut,  in  which  had  been  written  all  the  words 


INTRODUCTORY.  21 

of  the  Law,  and  read  in  the  audience  of  the  people ; 
and  they  said  :  All  that  Jehovah  hath  spoken  will 
we  do,  and  be  obedient.  And  Moses  took  the  blood 
of  the  calves  and  the  goats,  with  water  and  scarlet 
wool  and  hyssop,  and  sprinkled  both  the  book  itself, 
and  all  the  people,  saying.  Behold  the  blood  of  the 
Covenant,  which  Jehovah  hath  made  with  you  con- 
cerning all  these  Words  (marginal  reading,  "upon 
all  these  conditions '') ;  this  is  the  blood  of  the  Cove- 
nant which  God  commanded  to  you-ward.  The 
Ten  Words  then  are  divinely  covenantal,  rather 
than  divinely  statutory.  And  just  because  they  are 
covenantal  rather  than  statutory,  they  are,  morally 
speaking,  more  divinely  commanding  than  any 
mere  statute  could  ever  have  been.  Law  is  never 
so  imperial  as  love. 

Observe  now  that   the   Ten   Words,  or    Com-  The    Deca- 
mandmeuts,  are  in  their  character  germinal  and      mfn^ai^in 
suggestive,  rather  than   unfolded  and  exhaustive.      Character. 
They  are  the  rudimental  principles  of   morality,       -7 
the  germs  of  ethics,  the  seminary,  or  seed-plot,  of 
religion.     Take,  for  instance,  the  First  Command- 
ment :  it  is  an  embryonic  theology,  or  doctrine  of 
Deity,  hinting    his   providential  government,   his 
essential   unity,   his   demand    on    our    undivided 
worship.     In  like  manner,  the  Second  Command- 
ment hints  the  nature  of  God — he  is  spiritual ;  the 
character  of  acceptable  worship — it  must  be  direct 
instead  of  indirect;   the  principle  of  retribution, 
alike  rewarding  and  penal — it  is  the  law  of  hered- 
ity.    The  Third  Commandment  hints  the  essential 
Godhood    of    Jehovah,   and   the   awful   guilt  of 


22  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

worshiping  him  insincerely,  pledgyig  his  name  to 
a  falsehood,  or  using  his  name  frivolously.  The 
Fourth  Commandment  hints  the  obligation  of 
daily  secular  labor ;  the  physiological  necessity  of 
periodic  rest;  the  duty  of  regularly-recurring 
periods  for  worship,  private  and  public.  The 
Fifth  Commandment  hints  the  duty  of  reverence 
for  all  in  authority,  whether  parental,  political, 
intellectual,  or  moral.  The  Sixth  Commandment 
hints  the  sacredness  of  the  human  body,  and, 
therefore,  the  sacrilegious  guilt  of  injuring  it, 
whether  by  murder  or  any  other  form  of  bodily 
harm.  The  Seventh  Commandment  hints  the 
hallowed  nature  of  the  marriage  institution,  and 
the  fearful  sacrilege  of  invading  the  sanctity  of 
home.  The  Eighth  Commandment  hints  the 
sacredness  of  the  rights  of  property,  and  the 
wickedness  of  all  kinds  of  theft,  whether  of  money, 
or  time,  or  opportunity,  or  ideas,  or  reputation. 
The  Ninth  Commandment  hints  the  unity  of  man- 
kind, the  sacredness  of  the  gift  of  language,  and 
the  criminality  of  all  duplicity  and  slander.  Tiie 
Tenth  Commandment  hints  the  doctrine  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood,  and  .the  guilt  of  disturbing 
the  equilibrium  of  human  society.  And  these 
Ten  Commandments,  or  germs  of  morality,  are  so 
intervolved  that,  as  the  Apostle  James  tells  us, 
James  u,  10.  "  Whosocvcr  shall  keep  the  whole  law,  and  yet 
stumble  in  one  point,  he  is  become  guilty  of  all '' ; 
for  the  God  who  wrote  on  the  first  table  of  liis 
Covenant  "  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before 
me,'*  also  wrote  on  the  second  table  of  his  Cove- 


INTRODUCTORY.  23 

nant,  "  Thou  shall  not  covet  any  thing  that  is  thy 
neighbour's." 

But  although  the  Ten  Commandments  are  rudi-  The  Deca- 
mental  in  their  form,  they  are  also  elemental  in      mortal  in 
their  meaning,  and  therefore  universal  and  immor-      Principle, 
tal   in  their  application.      Just  because  they  are 
germs,  they  are  capable  of  all  growth,  or  unfolding 
along  the  lines  suggested  in  the  embryo.    Men  may 
outgrow,  and  have  outgrown,  other  moralities ;  for 
example,  the  Ritual  of  Moses,  the  Institutes  of 
Manu,  the  Analects  of  Confucius,  the  Zend-Avesta 
of  Zoroaster,  the  Ethics  of  Aristotle,  the  Koran  of 
Mohammed,  the  Utilitarianism  of  Mill.     But  men 
have  not  outgrown,  and  never  will  outgrow,  at  least 
so  long  as  this  world  stands,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments of  Jehovah ;  for  he  has  engraven  them,  not 
only  on  tablets  of  stone,  but  also  on  tablets  of  an 
essential,   eternal    morality.      In    brief,  the    Ten 
Commandments  are    the  axioms   of    morals,   the  .,. 
summary  of  ethics,  the  itinerary  of  mankind,  the 
framework   of  society,   the  vertebral   column   of 
humanity. 

And  here,  let  me  ask  in  passing,  how  do  you  The  Dec  a- 
account  for  the  moral  anachronism  of  the  Decalogue  ?  vine  Reve- 
For,  whatever  doubts  there  may  be  touching  the 
antiquity  of  certain  parts  of  the  Pentateuch,  it  is 
quite  generally  agreed  that  the  Ten  Commandments 
are  as  ancient  as  Moses  himself,  proclaimed  while 
Israel  was  yet  fresh  from  the  bondage  and  poly- 
theism and  immoralities  of  Egypt.  Can  you  ac- 
count for  this  striking  anachronism  of  a  well-nigh 
perfect  code,   appearing  suddenly   in   an   archaic 


lation. 


25, 


24  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

age,  among  a  most  imperfect  people,  in  any 
better  way  than  by  accepting  the  Biblical  state- 
ment that  Jehovah  himself  proclaimed  this  code 
amid  the  supernatural  phenomena  of  Mount 
Sinai? 
Our  Theme  Let  me  offer  one  concluding  thought — ^the  perti- 

Our  Times,  nency  of  our  theme  to  our  times.  For  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  we  are  living  in  an  age  when  the  doc- 
trine of  individualism  is  assuming  an  extravagant 
and  perilous  form.  As  in  the  lawless  period  of  the 
xvii,  6;  Hebrew  judges,  when  there  was  no  king  in  Israel, 
and  every  man  did  that  which  was  right  in  his  own 
eyes,  so  in  our  own  period  there  is  a  marked  ten- 
dency to  extreme  individuality,  or  personal  lawless- 
ness ;  the  lawlessness,  for  example,  of  professional 
anarchy,  of  popular  sovereignty,  of  selfish  monopoly, 
of  conceited  idiosyncrasy,  of  defiant  irreligion ; 
in  brief,  the  lawlessness  which  substitutes  personal 
autonomy  for  divine  authority,  worshiping  self  in- 
stead of  God,  exclaiming,  Apres  moi  le  deluge.  Nor 
has  the  Church  herself  quite  escaped  the  infection 
of  this  moral  anarchy ;  there  are  those  in  her  com- 
munion who  in  their  hearts  still  say,  with  the  anti- 
nomians  of  St.  PauFs  day  :  "  I  am  not  under  law ; 
I  am  under  grace :  therefore  I  will  be  the  law  to 
myself;  I  will  do  what  is  right  in  my  own  eyes.'' 
In  other  words,  moral  lawlessness  substitutes 
proud  self-will  for  virile  obedience  to  Jehovah's 
mandates. 

Here,  in  the  subtile  infection  of  this  extravagant 
individualism,  or  sense  of  freedom  from  the  obliga- 
tion of  law,  lies  the  secret  of  the  terrible  falls  which 


INTRODUCTIORY.  25 

SO  often  and  so  painfully  startle  the  community. 
What  this  generation  needs  is  a  profounder  sense 
of  divine  supremacy  and  human  obligation.    What 
we  need  is  a  more  sinewy  Christianity  —  a  Chris- 
tianity which   shall    mightily   execute    Jehovah's 
mighty  will.      Young  gentlemen,    I   congratulate 
you  that  our  University  offers  you  a  Department 
of  Physical  Education,  and  the  use  of  yonder  noble 
athletic  grounds.     I  sincerely  wish,  alike  for  your 
health  of  body  and  your  health  of  soul,  that  every 
one  of  you  could  become  an  accomplished  gymnast. 
Nevertheless,  there  is  a  nobler  gymnasium  than  any 
physical — a  gymnasium  demanding  a  sterner  regi- 
men, exacter  discipline,  firmer  will,  stouter  muscle, 
defter  skill,  braver  movement,  than  any  you  shall 
ever  see  on  yonder  athletic  ground  :  it  is  the  gym- 
nasium of  the  soul,  the  arena  of  the  Ten  Command- 
ments.    God   grant  that  in   that   spiritual  arena, 
where  the  wrestling  is  not  against  flesh  and  blood,  Eph.  vi,  12. 
but  against  the  powers  of  lawlessness,  every  one  of 
you  may  wax  in  every  limb,  and  feel  the  thews  of  "inMemoriam, 
Anakim,  the  pulses  of  a  Titan's  heart.   So  shall  you 
become  mighty  before  God  to  the  casting  down  of  2  cor.  x,  4, 5. 
strongholds,  hurling  down  imaginations,  and  every 
high  thing  that  is  exalted  against  the  knowledge  of 
God,  and  bringing  every  thought  into  captivity  to 
the  obedience  of  Christ.     So  shall  you  receive  the  2  Tim.  iv,  8. 
crown  of  righteousness,   or   chaplet   of  perfected 
character,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge,  the 
impartial  arbiter,  has  promised  to  all   those  who 
fear  God,  and  love  him,  and  keep  his  command- 
ments.    Heaven  grant  it ! 
3 


26  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Collect  Blessed  Lord,  who  hast  caused  all  Holy  Scriptures  to  be 

written  for  our  learning  ;  Grant  that  we  may  in  such  wise  hear 
them,  read,  mark,  learn,  and  inwardly  digest  them,  that  by 
patience,  and  comfort  of  thy  holy  word,  we  may  embrace,  and 
ever  hold  fast,  the  blessed  hope  of  everlasting  life,  which  thou 
hast  given  us  in  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.    Amen. 


11. 

THE  FIRST  COMMANDMENT. 

I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  ont  of  the 
land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou 
Shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me. 

Exodus  XX,  2-3 


II. 

THE  FIRST  COMMANDMENT. 

How  sliall  we  conceive  of  God ?     Who  is   he?  ABasaiQues- 
What  is  his  name? 

The   First   CommandmeDt  answers  these  ques-  a  Basal  An- 
tions.     God  spake  all  these  words,  saying  :  ®^®^* 

/  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  Exod.  xx.  1-3. 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 
Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me. 

The  language  is  local ;  but  the  meaning  is  uni- 
versal. Accordingly^  in  studying  the  First  Com- 
mandment, let  us  ponder  it,  first,  in  its  meaning 
for  the  ancient  Jew,  and,  secondly,  in  its  meaning 
for  ourselves. 

I.  And  first,  the  meaning  of  the  First  Command-  Meaning  of 
ment  for  the  ancient  Jew.      The  commandment      Command- 
naturally  cleaves  into  two  parts — a  declaration  and      J^ew!^^^^^^ 
a  prohibition. 

1.  And  first,  the  divine  declaration  :  "lam  Jeho-  The  Divine 
vah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of   bondage."     Let  us 
ponder  these  clauses  in  their  order. 

(a)  First  of  all,  the  divine  name:  "J  am  Jeho-  The  Divine 

^  ,,  '  Name. 

vah. 

This  Hebrew  word  Jehovah,  I  hardly  need  say, 
appears  in  the  Authorized  Version  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  as  the  English  word  Lord,  printed  in 

29 


30  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

small  capitals.  Inasmuch  as  the  word  is  a  proper 
noun,  modern  translators  tiiiuk  that  the  word 
should  be  transliterated ;  but  they  differ  as  to 
whether  the  transliteration  should  appear  as  Jeho- 
vahj  or  as  Jahveh,  or  as  Yahveh,  or  as  Yahweh. 
The  American  Revisers  prefer  the  term  Jehovah, 
and  this  shall  be  our  term  in  this  course  of  lectures; 
A  more  important  question  is  this  :  What  does  this 
Hebrew  word  Jehovah  mean  ?  It  means. the  eternal, 
'  self-existing,  ever-living,  ever-acting  One.  A  strik- 
Exod.  iii,  1-15.  ing  Scripture  is  in  point.  While  Moses  was  still 
keeping  the  flock  of  Jethro,  his  father-in-law,  in 
one  of  the  wadies  near  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai,  there 
suddenly  appeared  to  him  a  burning,  but  uncon- 
sumed  bush.  Out  of  it  came  a  divine  voice,  say- 
ing :  '•'  I  am  the  God  of  thy  father  the  God  of 
Abraham,  the  God  of  Isaac,  the  God  of  Jacob ; 
go  back  into  Egypt,  for  I  have  appointed  thee  to 
deliver  my  people  out  of  the  hand  of  Pharaoh." 
But  Moses,  remembering  that  his  countrymen  had 
long  been  exposed  to  the  debasing  effects  of  servi- 
tude, and  that  they  were  still  living  in  polytheistic 
Egypt,  ventures  to  say :  "  Behold,  when  I  come  unto 
the  children  of  Israel,  and  shall  say  unto  them,  The 
God  of  your  fathers  hath  sent  me  unto  you  ;  and 
they  shall  say  me.  What  is  his  name?  what  shall  I 
say  unto  them  ?^'     And  God  said  unto  Moses  :  ''  1 

AM  that  I  AM  (or,  I  AM  BECAUSE  I  AM  ;  or,  I  AM 
WHO  AM  ;    or,  I  WILL  BE  THAT  I  WILL  BE).     ThuS 

shalt  thou  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel :  I  am 
(or,  I  WILL  be)  hath  sent  me  unto  you  ;  Jehovah^ 
the  God  of  your  fathers,  the  God  of  Abraham, 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  31 

the  God  of  Isaac,  the  God  of  Jacob,  hath  sent  me 
unto  you:  tliis  is  my  name  forever,  and  this  is  my 
memorial  unto  all  generations/'  Tliis,  thelf  is  the 
meaning  of  the  Hebrew  word  Jehovah;  it  means 
the  personal,  self-existent,  eternal,  ever-acting  One.* 
Observe,  also,  that  this  name  Jehovah  was,  in  a 
unique  sense,  the  name  of  God  in  his  special  cove- 
nant-relation with  his  chosen  people,  Israel.  Dis- 
tinguish for  a  moment  between  the  Hebrew  word 
Elohim,  translated  ''God,''  and  the  Hebrew  word 
transliterated  Jehovah.  Elohim  was  the  general 
name  of  God;  Jehovah  was  the  specific  name. 
Elohim  was  God  in  the  Bible  of  his  works ;  Jeho- 
vah was  God  in  the  Bible  of  his  words.  Elohim 
was  the  God  of  mankind ;  Jehovah  was  the  God 
of  Israel.  Jehovah  was  Elohim  revealed.  Elohim  Exod.  xx,i,2. 
spake  all  these  words,  saying:  "  I  am  Jehovah  thy 
Elohim."^      It  is  unfortunate  that  this  distinction 

1 "  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  substitution  of  *  Lord  ' 
for  Jahveh  in  the  translation  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  in 
the  Jewish  Rabbinical  Theology,  has  been  associated  with  an 
undue  stress  upon  the  sovereignty  of  God.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment revelation,  in  its  use  of  nin%  emphasized  rather  the 
activity  of  the  ever-living  personal  God  of  revelation.  The 
doctrine  of  God  needs  to  be  enriched  at  the  present  time  by  the 
enthronement  of  the  idea  of  the  living  God  to  its  supreme 
place  in  Biblical  theology,  and  the  dethronement  of  the  idea  of 
divine  sovereignty  from  its  usurped  position  in  dogmatic  the- 
ology."— "  Messianic  Prophecy,"  by  Prof.  Charles  Augustus 
Briggs,  D,  D.,  preface,  xi 

-"  The  Hebrew  may  say  the  Elohim,  the  true  God,  in  opposi- 
tion to  all  false  gods;  but  he  never  says  t?ie  Jehovah,  for 
Jehovah  is  the  name  of  the  true  God  only.  He  says  again  and 
again  my  God  (Flohim),  but  never  my  Jehovah ;  for  when  he 
says,  'my  God'  (Elohim),  he  means  Jehovah.  He  speaks  of 
t?ie   God  {Elohim)  of  Israel,  but  never  of  the  Jehovah  of  Israel, 


32  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

between  Elohim,  the  general  name  of  God,  and 
Jehovah,  the  specific,  covenantal,  Abrahamic  name 
of  Godj  should  be  concealed,  or  at  least  obscured, 
by  the  failure  of  the  English  translators  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  to  transliterate  the  definite, 
Hebrew  proper  noun  Jehovah,  substituting  in  place 
of  it  the  indefinite  translation  Lord,  printed  in 
small  capitals.  For  oftentimes  the  force  of  an 
argument  or  of  an  appeal  hinges  on  tiiis  very  word 
Jehovah,  as  meaning  the  Covenant-God  of  Israel. 
1  jK^ngs  xviii,  The  scene  on  Mount  Carmel,  when  Elijah  chal- 
lenged the  prophets  of  Baal,  is  strikingly  in  point. 
The  question  in  issue  was  precisely  this:  Which 
was  the  true  God,  Jehovah — the  God  of  the  He- 
brews, or  Baal — the  god  of  the  Phoenicians?  Listen 
to  Elijah's  appeal ;  "  How  long  halt  ye  between 
two  opinions?  If  Jehovah  be  God,  follow  him; 
but  if  Baal,  then  follow  him."  Listen  to  Elijah's 
prayer :  ^'  O  Jehovah,  the  God  of  Abraham,  of 
Isaac,  and  of  Jacob,  let  it  be  known  this  day  that 
thou  art  God  in  Israel."  Listen  to  the  confession 
of  Israel,  hitherto  vacillating  between  Jehovah 
and  Baal,  but  at  last  overcome  by  Jehovah's  ac- 
ceptance of  Elijah's  burnt  oifering:  ^'Jehovah,  he 
is  God!  Jehovah,  he  is  God  V  Let  me,  then,  im- 
press on  you  this  injunction:  Whenever  you  see  in 
the  Old  Testament  this  word  Lord  printed  in  small 
capitals,  always  substitute  for  it  the  word  Jehovah, 

for  there  is  no  other  Jehovah.  He  speaks  of  tfie  living  Ood 
{Elohim),  but  never  of  the  living  Jehovah,  for  he  cannot  con- 
ceive of  Jehovah  as  other  than  living." — Fair-bairn's  "Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible." 


THE    FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  33 

meaning  the  Covenant-God  of  the  Hebrews.  And 
yet,  strange  to  say,  notwithstanding  Jehovah,  the  Exod.  m, is. 
God  of  Abraham,  and  of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacbbfirad 
expressly  said  to  Moses  at  the  burning  bush  that 
this  name  Jehovah  should  be  his  name  forever,  his 
memorial  unto  all  generations,  this  name  Jehovah 
is  precisely  the  one  name  which  the  Jews  in  after 
centuries  snperstitiously  refused  to  pronounce,  de- 
clarinoj  that  this  sacred  tetras^rammaton  was  the 
incommunicable,  ineffable  name;  thus  making  the  Matt.xv,6. 
commandment  of  God  of  none  effect  by  their  tra- 
dition. 

(6)  And  now  we  pass  to  the  divine  relation :  "I  The   Divine 
am  Jehovah  thy  God." 

Observe:  Although  the  Israelites  listening  at 
that  moment  to  Jehovah's  voice  numbered  more 
than  two  millions,  yet  God  addresses  them  in  the 
singular  number,  saying,  "I  am  Jehovah  thy  Elo- 
him.''  This  divine  choice  of  the  singular  posses- 
sive "  thy '^  instead  of  the  plural  possessive  ^'  your,'' 
is  profoundly  significant,  implying  that  Jehovah 
regarded  his  people  Israel  as  a  single,  colossal  per- 
sonality, or  corporate  unity.  The  Jews,  considered 
as  individuals,  were  many  Israelites;  the  Jews, 
considered  as  a  nation,  were  one  Israel.  When  Hoseaxi,  i. 
Israel  was  a  child,  then  Jehovah  loved  him,  and 
called  his  son  out  of  Egypt.  It  was  this  divine 
conception  of  the  Hebrew  people  as  a  single,  cor- 
porate personality  which  gave  to  Israel  such  a 
unique  position  among  the  nations  of  the  earth, 
and  which  also  made  the  revolt  of  the  ten  tribes 
under  Jeroboam  such  an   heinous  sin.     Nor  was 


34  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Israel  the  only  people  that  was  a  person.  Every 
nation  worthy  of  the  name  of  nation  is  also  a 
person,  having,  at  least,  some  of  the  attributes  of 
personality.  For  example:  Each  nation  has  its 
own  idiosyncrasy.  Recall  Hebrew  subtilty,  Greek 
sestheticism,  Roman  jurisprudence,  Chinese  conser- 
vatism, French  savoir-faire,  German  speculation, 
English  persistence,  Scotch  shrewdness,  Irish  im- 
petuosity, American  versatility.  Again,  each  nation 
has  such  attributes  of  personality  as  conscience, 
choice,  purpose,  manners,  character,  continuity  of 
existence,  the  individuals  as  components  vanishing, 
the  totality  as  a  person  remaining.  Hence,  as 
Thomas  Carlyle  says,  "History  is  the  essence  of 
innumerable  biographies."  And  just  because  the 
nation  is  a  person,  having  a  character  either  good 
or  bad  or  mixed,  so  therefore  the  nation  has  a  des- 
tiny either  prosperous  or  disastrous  or  mingled. 

Ps.  cxiiv  15.  "  Happy  is  the  people  whose  God  is  Jehovah  ! " 
Happy  is  our  dear  America,  so  long  as  the  God 
of  Israel  can  say  to  her,  I  am  Jehovah,  thy  God. 

The  Divine  (c)  And  now  observe  the  divine  deliverance: 
Deliverance,  a  j  ^^  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  oj 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondmenj' 

Exo(i.xix,4.  Jehovah  had  just  said  unto  Israel,  "Ye  have 

seen  what  I  did  unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I 
bare  you  on  eagles'  wings,  and  brought  you  unto 
myself."  How  exultingly  Moses  had  chanted  his 
triumphal  ode  ! 

Exod.  XV  1-21.         I  ^^^1  ^^^S  unto  Jehovah,  for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously ; 
The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea. 
Jehovah  is  my  strength  and  song, 


THE  FIKST  COMMANDMENT.  35 

And  he  is  become  my  salvation  : 

This  is  my  God,  and  I  will  praise  him  ; 

My  father's  God,  and  I  will  exalt  him. 

Jehovah  is  a  man  of  war : 

Jehovah  is  his  name. 

Pharoah's  chariots  and  his  host  hath  he  cast  into  the  sea ; 

And  his  chosen  captains  are  sunk  in  the  Red  Sea. 

The  deeps  cover  them  : 

They  went  down  into  the  depths  like  a  stone. 

Thy  right  hand,  O  Jehovah,  is  glorious  in  power, 

Thy  right  hand,  O  Jehovah,  dasheth  in  pieces  the  enemy. 

The  enemy  said, 

I  will  pursue,  I  will  overtake,  I  will  divide  the  spoil : 

My  lust  shall  be  satisfied  upon  them  ; 

I  will  draw  my  sword,  my  hand  shall  destroy  them. 

Thou  didst  blow  with  thy  wind,  the  sea  covered  them  : 

They  sank  as  lead  in  the  mighty  waters. 

Who  is  like  unto  thee,  0  Jehovah,  among  the  gods? 

Who  is  like  thee,  glorious  in  holiness, 

Fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders  ? 

And  Miriam  the  prophetess,  the  sister  of  Moses, 
took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand,  and  answered  in  anti- 
phone  : 

Sing  ye  to  Jehovah,  for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously  ; 
The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he  thrown  into  the  sea. 

Well  then  might  Jehovah's  rescue  of  Israel  out 
of  the  grasp  of  Pharaoh  be  a  proof  that  he  was 
indeed  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  and  therefore  had 
the  sole  claim  on  their  undivided  worship. 

2.  And  so  we  pass  from  the  divine  declaration —  ^he   Divine 
"  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God  ''—to  the  divine  prohibi-     Prohibition, 
tion — ^^Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  ?rte" — 
margin,  "  beside  me." 

This  prohibition  not  only  forbade  Israel's  apos- 
tatizing from  Jehovah,  and  substituting  the  worship 
of  other  gods  in  his  place :  it  also  forbade  Israel'^ 


36  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

worshiping  other  gods  in  addition  to  their  worship 
of  Jehovah.  Remember  that  they  had  just  come 
out  of  polytheistic  Egypt,  a  land  where  there  were 
as  many  local  gods  as  there  were  hamlets,  the  land 
of  Ka,  Phthah,  Osiris,  Isis,  Horus,  and  animal  wor- 
ship. Remember  also  that  they  were  going  up 
into  polytheistic  Canaan,  the  land  of  Baal,  and 
Ashtoreth,  and  Asherah,  and  Molech,  and  Dagon. 
Remember  also  that  they  themselves  were  origin- 
josh.xxiv,  1-28.  ally  of  polytheistic  ancestry.  "Your  fathers," 
said  Joshua  to  Israel  by  the  witnessing-stone  at 
Shechem,  "  dwelt  of  old  time  beyond  the  River 
(Euphrates),  even  Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham, 
and  the  father  of  Nahor :  and  they  served  other 
gods.  Now  therefore  fear  Jehovah,  and  serve  him 
in  sincerity  and  in  truth :  and  put  away  the  gods 
which  your  fathers  served  beyond  Euphrates  ;  and 
serve  ye  Jehovah.  And  if  it  seem  evil  unto  you 
to  serve  Jehovah,  choose  you  this  day  whom  ye 
will  serve;  whether  the  gods  which  your  fathers 
served  that  were  beyond  the  River,  or  the  gods  of 
the  Amorites,  in  whose  land  ye  dwell ;  but  as  for 
me  and  my  house,  we  will  serve  Jehovah."  Re- 
membering, then,  that  the  Jews  were  primarily  of 
polytheistic  origin,  that  they  had  just  come  up  out 
of  polytheistic  Egypt,  and  that  they  were  on  their 
way  to  polytheistic  Canaan,  it  is  not  wonderful 
that  they  needed  Jehovah's  prohibition — "Thou 
shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me,"  or,  "  along 
side  of  me,  in  addition  to  me."  How  much  they 
needed  it  is  sadly  proved  by  the  fact  that  even  after 
it  had  been  proclaimed  amid  the  thunders  of  Sinai, 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMEJST.  37 

while  they  were  still  at  the  foot  of  the  mount,  and 
Moses  was  still  in  the  glory-cloud  above,  they  said 
to  Aaron  :  "Up,  make  us  gods,  which  shall  go  be-  Exod.xxxii,i-6. 
fore  us ;  for  as  for  this  Moses,  we  know  not  what  is 
become  of  him."  And  Aaron,  yielding  to  their 
demand,  received  their  golden  ear  rings,  and  fash- 
ioned them  into  a  molten  calf,  such  as  he  had  often 
seen  w^orshiped  in  Egypt;  and  the  people  bowed 
before  it,  exclaiming :  "  This  is  thy  god,  O  Israel, 
which  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.'' 

This,  then,  was  the  meanino;  of  the  First  Com-   Summary  for 
T  n        ^  •  X  T     r>    1      T     1  •  ttie  Jew. 

mandraent  for  the  ancient  Jew:  it  lorbade  turn  to 

worship  any  god  except  Jehovah,  his  own  Coven- 
ant-God. For,  as  I  said  in  the  introductory 
lecture,  the  Ten  Commandments,  or,  rather,  the 
ten  Words  of  the  Covenant,  were  not  so  much 
statutory  as  they  were  covenantal,  setting  forth 
Jehovah's  gracious  arrangement  for  his  own  people, 
Israel.  Accordingly,  Jehovah  was  the  party  of 
the  first  part,  covenanting  to  be  Israel's  God ;  and 
Israel  was  the  party  of  the  second  part,  covenanting 
to^Darsliip  no  God  but  Jehovah. 

'    II.  Pondernow,secondly,themeaningof theFirst  Meaning:    of 
Commandment  for  ourselves.     Let  us  follow  the      Command- 
same  order  as  before,  noting,  first,  the  divine  de-      Ourse^ives!^ 
claration;  and,   secondly,   the   divine  proliibition. 

1.  And,  first,  the  divine  declaration:  "I  am  The  Divine 
Jehovali  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  the  gon!^^""*' 
land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage." 

(a)  Note,  first,  the  divine  Name:  ^^ I  am  Jehovali J^  The  Divine 
And  who  is  this  Jehovah  ?     It  is  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth, the  Son  of  God  and  the  Son  of  man,  the  Man 


38  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Divine.  I  enter  into  no  theological  argument  touch- 
ing the  Trinity,  no  metaphysical  discussion  touching 
the  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  For,  thank  God.  our 
University  is  not  a  sectarian  college.  At  the  same 
time,  thank  God,  our  University  is  a  Christian 
college,  founded  under  Christian  auspices,  and 
administered,  I  am  sure,  in  a  Christian  spirit.  We 
are  only  true  to  the  traditions  of  our  past  and  to 
the  Christian  sentiment  of  our  own  age,  not  when 
we  say  theologically,  that  Jesus  is  God  or  that  God 
is  Jesus,  but  when  we  say  practically  that  Jesus  is 
God    in   manifestation,    the    Father    manifested. 

John  xiv,  8-10.  Philip  saith  unto  Jesus :  *'  Lord,  shew  us  the 
Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us."  Jesus  answereth  : 
"Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you" — have  I 
been  with  you  all  these  years  of  companionship 
and  tuition  and  example  and  life — "  and  dost  thou 
not  know  me,  Philip?  He  that  hath  seen  me 
hath  seen  the  Father ;  how  sayest  thou  then.  Shew 
us  the  Father?  Believest  thou  not  that  I  am  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me?  "     Thus  Jesus 

John i,  18.  Christ  is  the  revelation  of  God.     "No  man  hath 

seen  God  at  any  time;  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Father  " — the  eternal  Father's 
bosom  intimate — "he  hath  declared  him  " — made 
exegesis  of  him,  interpreted  him,  made  him  known. 

Col.  i,  15.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  visible  image  of  the  invisible 

Heb.i,  3.  God,  the  effulgence  of  his  glory,  the  very  image  of 

his  substance,  the  very  impress  of  his  being.    Jesus 

johui,i.  Christ  is  Deity  in  exposition.     He  is  the  Word  of 

God. 

Exod.  iii,  14.  Observe  also  how  the  "  I  AM  "  of  the  burning 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  39 

bush  reappears  in   the  "Jams"  of  the  Nazarene. 

For  example :  "  Where  two  or  three  are  gathered  Matt,  xviu,  2a 

together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in  the  midst  of 

them."     "  Lo,  Jam  with  you  al way,  even  unto  the  Matt. xxvm,  20. 

end  of  the  world. ^'    "  Before  Abraham  was,  J  amj^  John  vui,  58. 

"I  come  again,  and  will  receive  you  unto  myself;  Johnxiv,3. 

that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be  also."    "Father,  johnxvii,  24. 

I  desire  that,  where  J  am,  they  also  may  be  with 

me."     Aye,  "  Jesus  Christ  is  the  same  yesterday,  Heb.  xm,  8. 

and  to-day,  yea  and  forever."     He  himself  said  to 

the  exile  of  Patmos :  "T  am  the  Alpha  and  the  Rev-i.8- 

Omega,  who  is  and  who  was  and  who  is  to  come, 

the  Almighty."     Well  then  might  the  angel  of  the 

annunciation  bid  Joseph,  saying  :  "  Thou  shalt  call  Matt.  1,21. 

his  name  Jesus  (that  is  "  whose  help  is  Jehovah  ")  : 

for  it  is  he  that  shall  save  his  people  from  their 

sins."     Verily,  his  name  is   Immanuel,  which  is,  Matt,  1,23. 

being  interpreted,  God  with  us.^ 

^  It  is  interesting  and  instructive  to  trace  the  progressive 
revelation  of  God's  name.  Dean  Plumptre,  in  his  paper  on 
the  phrase  "  The  3fost  High  God,"  arranges  the  chief  Divine 
names  of  the  Old  Testament  as  follows  : 

"  (1)  As  the  earliest  of  all,  the  lowest  stratum  in  the  lan- 
guage deposits  of  the  religious  history  of  the  Semitic  races, 
we  have  the  name  Ul  (God)  as  seen  in  Beth-el,  ^Z-Shaddai, 
Isra-cZ,  Samu-eZ,  and  the  like.  It  indicates  in  its  singular 
form  that  the  primary  conception  is  that  of  unity.  It  is  the 
witness  of  a  monotheistic  faith.  The  original  idea  which  it 
expresses  is  that  of  strength.  That  idea  is  intensified  in  the 
name  El-Shaddai,  '  God  Almighty.*  It  is  connected  with  the 
thought  of  an  infinite  elevation  above  man,  and  earth,  and  the 
things  of  time,  in  El-EUon,  '  the  Most  High  God.'  If  there  is 
any  traceable  distinction  in  the  use  of  these  two  names,  it  is 
that  the  former  belongs  specially  to  Abraham  and  his  descend- 
ants, that  the  latter  is  common  to  them  and  to  the  tribes  from 
which  they  had  been  called  to  be  a  peculiar  people,  a  '  congre- 


40  THE  TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

The  Divine       (6)  And  now  we  pass  to  the  tlivine  relation  :   "I 
am  Jehovah  thy  GodJ^ 

And  who  is  Jehovah's  Israel  in  our  day  and 

gation,'  an  ecclesia.  (2)  In  some  way,  we  know  not  how,  the 
more  common  mode  of  using  the  name  Ul  came  to  be  in  the 
plural  form  Ulohim.  It  may  be,  as  Christian  theologians  have 
for  the  most  part  maintained,  that  this  implied  the  presence  in 
the  Divine  nature  of  a  plurality  mysteriously  compatible  with 
unity.  It  may  be,  as  Mr.  Max  Mtiller  has  suggested,  that 
Elohim  originated  in  the  growth  of  a  polytheistic  tendency 
among  the  Semitic  as  among  the  other  races  of  mankind.  In 
either  case,  when  taken  up  by  the  children  of  Abraham,  and 
combined  with  language  which  unmistakably  asserted  the  Di- 
yine  unity,  it  testified  that  he  who  was  so  named  united  within 
himself  all  that  men  had  imagined  as  belonging  to  the  *  god? 
many  and  lords  many  '  before  whom  they  bowed  in  worship. 
But  the  fact  that  it  primarily  expressed  plurality  rather  than 
unity  led  naturally  enough  to  a  lower  application  of  the  name. 
It  was  given  to  the  earthly  representatives  of  the  Divine  gov- 
ernment as  well  as  to  the  Divine  King  himself.  It  was 
written  of  to  the  judges  and  rulers  of  Israel,' I  have  said,  Ye 
are  gods'  (Ulohim)  '  and  all  of  you  are  children  of  the  Most 
High'  (Ps.  82:  6).  When  the  Israelites  met  at  a  time  of 
danger,  looking  for  new  leaders,  it  is  said  of  them  that '  they 
chose  NEW  gods'  {EloMm)  (Judg.  5:  8).  The  name  was 
applied  in  common  prose  narrative  (as  in  Exod.  21 :  6  ;  22  :  8  ; 
22:9)  to  those  whom  our  Authorized  Version  calls  'judges.' 
(3)  Such  a  name  was,  therefore,  in  danger  of  losing  its  power 
to  bear  witness  to  the  unity  of  God.  It  did  not  direct  men  to 
the  thought  of  God  as  the  eternal,  the  ever-living,  the  source 
of  all  life  to  men.  What  met  their  want  was  found  in  Jah^  or 
Jahveh,  or  Jehovah,  from  the  time  when  it  was  revealed  to  Moses 
as  expressing  the  truth  which  in  its  more  expanded  form 
appeared  in  the  I  am  that  I  am.  Once  adopted  (and  its 
appearance  in  the  Song  of  Deborah,  Judg.  5,  passim,  with  all 
its  manifestly  local  and  contemporary  touches,  is  a  proof  that 
it  was  in  use  then,  and  not,  as  has  been  maintained,  an  after- 
thought of  the  days  of  Samuel),  it  became,  naturally  enough, 
the  distinctive  name  of  the  faith  of  Israel.  In  the  combination 
of  Jehovah- Sahaoth,  '  the  Lord  of  Hosts,'  it  testified  of  him  as 
the  God  of  the  armies  of  Israel,  the  giver  of  victory  in  battle, 


THE   FIRST   (X)MMANDMENT.  41 

land?     It  is  the  Church  of  the  living  God:  "for  Rom. li, 28, 29. 
he  is  not  a  Jew,  who  is  one  outwardly ;  neither  is 
that  circumcision,  which  is  outward  in  the  flesh  :  but 

as  the  God  of  the  unseen  hosts  of  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  of 
the  angels  that  serve  him.  Used  in  combination  with  Elohim 
('  the  Lord  God ')  or  interchangeably  with  it  in  successive 
verses  of  the  same  chapter  or  the  same  hymn,  it  rescued 
that  name  from  any  downward  tendency,  and  enabled  men  to 
use  it  even  by  itself,  as  old  associations  or  rhythmic  influences 
might  lead  them,  without  any  risk  of  weakening  the  faith  of 
the  people  in  the  indivisible  Unity,  with  no  more  definite  dog- 
matic purpose,  it  may  be,  than  Christians  have  when  they 
speak  in  sermons  or  hymns  or  meditations,  of  '  God '  and 
*  the  Lord,'  indiscriminately.  The  relation  of  the  two  titles 
was  fixed  for  ever  by  the  proclamation,  '  the  Lord  thy  God  is 
one  Lord';  ^Jehovah  thy  Elohim  is  one  JeJwvah'  (Deut.  6:4). 
(4)  But,  meantime,  the  older,  primeval  name  of  the  3Iost  High 
God  kept  its  ground  even  amid  the  debasing  polytheism  of  the 
Chaldeans,  Phoenicians,  and  other  sections  of  the  Semitic  race. 
When  the  Jews  came  in  contact  with  them,  or  with  the  Greeks, 
to  whom  the  name  had  passed  through  their  instrumentality, 
or  among  whom  it  had  sprung  into  use  through  the  parallel- 
ism of  thought  which  the  history  of  the  religions  of  the  world 
so  often  presents,  even  where  there  is  no  traceable  dei'ivation,. 
they  were  able  to  claim  it  as  their  inheritance,  and  to  take  it 
as  a  common  ground  on  which  both  alike  could  stand.  (5)  It 
may  seem  strange  at  first  that  the  preachers  of  the  new  faith, 
which  was  in  the^  fullest  sense  that  of  a  universal  fellowship, 
they  who  proclaimed  a  covenant  identical  in  its  terms  and  con- 
ditions with  that  made  with  Abraham,  should  have  made  so 
little  use  of  a  name  which  might  have  seemed  at  first  so  suit- 
able for  their  purpose  ;  but  the  causes  of  their  thus  leaving  it 
to  drop  into  comparative  disuse  are  not,  I  believe,  far  to  seek. 
Its  very  prevalence  in  the  days  of  the  decadence  of  Judaism 
had  rendered  it  less  fit  to  be  the  vehicle  of  the  truth  they 
preached.  It  had  been  tainted,  so  to  speak,  by  passing  from 
the  lips  of  exorcists  and  demoniacs  ;  and  at  the  best  it  would 
only  have  conveyed  the  thought  that  the  faith  which  the 
apostles  preached  was  simply  a  revival  of  the  religion  of  the 
patriarchs.  It  might  have  led,  as  with  the  heretics  above 
referred  to,  to  a  hybrid,  half-Jewish,  half-Oriental  system. 


42  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

he  is  a  Jew,  who  is  one  inwardly ;  and  circumcision 
is  that  of  the  heart,  in  the  spirit,  not  in  the  letter  ; 
whose  praise  is  not  of  men,  but  of  God."  And  this 
latter  Israel  of  the  New  Covenant  in  Jesus,  like 
the  former  Israel  of  the  Old  Covenant  under  Moses, 
-  is  a  single  moral  personality ;  for  observe  again 
that  the  pronominal  adjective  is  in  the  singular 
number :  "  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God.''  The  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  single,  definite,  corporate  unity : 
Cor.  xii,  27.  <'  Yc  are  the  body  of  Christ,  and  severally  members 
thereof  But  when  I  use  the  term  "  church ''  in 
such  a  connection  as  the  present,  of  course,  I  do 
not  mean  by  it  any  local  organization,  or  the  aggre- 
gate of  organized  churches.  But  I  do  mean  by  it 
the  one  organic  Church  of  the  living  God,  the  one 
Church  of  the  spiritual  corporation  of  redeemed 
humanity,  the  one  ideal  Church  of  the  sum-total  of 
Christly  characters  in  all  ages  and  of  all  sects,  the 
one  Church  of  the  second  and  continuous  incarna- 
tion or  the  immortal  body  of  Christ — in  brief,  the 
one  Church  of  the  Lamb.  And  it  is  the  Church 
in  this  spiritual,  universal,  immortal,  ideal,  divine 
sense  which,  in  virtue  of  her  own  origin  and  nature 
and  destiny,  always  has  been,  is  now,  and  always 

It  seemed  only,  when  men  looked  to  its  significance,  to 
express  the  infinite  distance  between  man  and  God. 
Another  name  had  been  given  to  them,  which  expressed,  not 
the  distance,  but  the  nearness,  the  clearness  of  the  relation  in 
which  he  had  revealed  himself  as  standing  to  the  children  of 
men.  The  name  of  the  Most  High  God  Avas  to  yield,  in  the 
prayers  and  praises  of  the  Christian  Church,  to  that  of  *  Our 
Father  which  is  in  heaven.'  '  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"—"  Biblical  Studies,'*  by  E.  H.  Plumptre,  D.  D., 
Dean  of  >Yells. 


THE   FIEST   COMMANDMENT.  43 

must  be  a  single,  definite,  moral  personality.  Here 
we  are  this  afternoon  representing  different  ecclesi- 
astical organizations — Episcopalians,  Quakers,  Pres- 
byterians, Methodists,  Baptists,  Lutherans,  Roman- 
ists, and  some  no  denomination  at  all.  And  yet,  if 
we  really  belong  to  Christ,  truly  loving  him  and 
obeying  him  and  sharing  his  character,  we  are,  in 
spite  of  all  our  diversities,  one  Christian  person- 
ality :  for  in  Christ  Jesus  there  can  be  neither  Jew  Gai.  m,  28;  Coi. 
nor  Gentile,  neither  Greek  nor  Scythian,  neither 
male  nor  female :  for  all  in  Christ  are  one,  and 
Christ  is  all,  and  in  all.  As  there  is  but  one 
spiritual  God — namely,  Jehovah — so  there  is  but 
one  spiritual  Israel — namely,  his  Church  :  "  I  am 
Jehovah  thy  God.'' 

(c)  Observe  now  ag:ain  the  divine  deliverance:  The   Divine 
^  ^  =  Deliverance. 

"  I  am   Jehovah,  thy  God,  who   brought  thee  out 

of  the   land   of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bond- 
age:' 

As  it  is  the  Church  that  is  the  true  Israel,  so 
it  is  Diabolus  who  is  the  true  Pharaoh,  and  Sin 
which  is  the  true  Egypt,  and  Jesus  who  is  the  true 
Deliverer.  Recall  Gabriel's  mandate  to  the  Virgin 
Mother  :  "Thou  shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  ;  for  it  Matt.  1,21. 
is  he  that  shall  save  his  people  from  their  sins.'' 
Recall  how,  after  he  had  entered  on  his  public 
ministry,  he  proclaimed  his  own  charter  of  eman- 
cipation :  '^  If  ye  abide  in  my  word,  ye  shall  know  johnviii,  31-36. 
the  truth,  and  the  truth  shall  make  you  free:  Verily, 
verily,  I  say  unto  you.  Every  one  that  committeth  sin 
is  the  bondservant  of  sin  :  if  therefore  the  Son  shall 
make  you  free,  ye  shall  be  free  indeed."    That  is  to 


44  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

say,  truth  has  an  emancipating  power  ;  for,  born  as 
we  are  into  a  fallen  world,  we  are  born  to  a  heritage 
of  misconceptions  and  delusions.  And  a  state  of 
delusion  is  a  state  of  slavery.  Falsehood  is  a 
fetter  chaining  our  best  faculties.  But  let  truth 
shine  on  it,  and  how  soon  it  melts  the  chain!  This 
emancipating  power  of  truth  holds  in  the  intel- 
lectual world  :  observe  how  the  knowledge  of  the 
sciences,  or  truth  as  it  is  written  in  nature,  frees  us 
from  the  thraldom  of  ignorance,  and  superstition, 
and  fetichism.  But  the  emancipating  power  of 
truth  is  best  seen  in  the  moral  world  :  observe  how 
the  knowledge  of  God,  or  truth  as  it  is  written  in 
the  character  of  Jesus,  frees  us  from  the  thraldom 
of  falsehood,  and  degradation,  and  evil  habit. 
Truth  it  is  whicli  unlocks  the  dungeon  in  which 
sin  has  imprisoned  our  Godward  faculties,  bidding 
them  go  forth  into  God's  own  realm  of  moral 
liberty,  wherein  the  hitherto  pent-up  religious 
capacities  shall  have  full  scope  for  unfolding  into 
all  varieties  of  strength,  and  beauty,  and  joy. 
The  truth  shall  make  you  free.  For,  alas!  there  is 
no  bondage  so  bitter  as  the  bondage  of  a  sinful 
habit,  no  thraldom  so  absolute  as  the  thraldom  of 
a  sinful  cliaracter.  How  true  this  is  of  the 
drunkard,  the  libertine,  the  miser,  the  spendthrift, 
the  scoffer !  Now  if  Jesus  Christ  makes  us  free, 
we  shall  be  free  indeed;  for  he,  in  virtue  of  his 
twofold  Sonship — Son  of  God,  and  so  God's  heir  ; 
Son  of  man,  and  so  man's  next  of  kin — is  this 
world's  true  emancipator,  striking  off  with  his  own 
Calvary-stained  hands  the  shackles  of  sin,  manu- 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  45 

mitting  us  into  the  eternal  freedom.     For  so  sings 
William  Covvper : 

There  is  yet  a  liberty  unsuDff  "The     Task," 

book  V. 
By  poets,  and  by  senators  unpraised, 

Which  monarchs  cannot  grant,  nor  all  the  powers 

Of  earth  and  hell  confederate  take  away  : 

A  liberty,  which  persecution,  fraud, 

Oppression,  prisons,  have  no  power  to  bind  ; 

Which  whoso  tastes  can  be  enslaved  no  more  : 

'Tis  liberty  of  heart  derived  from  heaven. 

Bought  with  his  blood,  who  gave  it  to  mankind, 

And  sealed  with  the  same  token. 

Aye,  "  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  Rom.  viu,  2. 
hath  made  me  free  from  the  law  of  sin  and  of  death." 
Stand  fast  then  in  the  freedom  wherewith  Christ  ^*^-  "^^  *• 
hath  set  us  free ;  and  be  not  entangled  again  in  a 
yoke  of  bondage. 

2.  And  now  let  us  pass  to  the  divine  prohibi-  The   Divine, 
tion  :  '^Thou  shaU  have  none  other  gods  befai^e  me'' — 
that  is,  '^Thou  shall  have  no  God  except  me." 

We  ourselves  need  this  prohibition  no  less  than 
did  ancient  Israel.  For,  although  Christendom, 
theoretically  speaking,  is  monotheistic,  yet  Chris- 
tendom, practically  speaking,  is  largely  polythe- 
istic. Kecall,  for  example,  the  practical  tritheism 
of  many  Trinitarians,  conceiving  the  three  persons 
in  the  trinity  as  three  distinct  Gods ;  or  the  practical 
dualism  of  many  Christians,  conceiving  the  Father 
as  the  God  of  wrath,  and  the  Son  as  the  God  of 
love ;  or,  again,  conceiving  the  Creator  as  the  God 
of  nature,  and  the  Redeemer  as  the  God  of  Scrip- 
ture. Behold  in  the  Pantheon  of  our  Christendom 
how  many  niches  there  are  for  various  gods — ^the 
god  of  the  deist,  the  god  of  the  materialist,  the  god 


46  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

of  the  fatalist,  the  god  of  the  sentimentalist,  the  god 
of  the  churchman,  the  god  of  the  pantheist.  Behold 
here  and  there  in  this  Pantheon  a  comprehensive 
worshiper,  fashioning  a  colossal  composite  idol, 
partly  man  and  partly  beast,  syncretically  blending 
in  one  divine  amalgam,  Christianity  and  Paganism, 
Protestantism  and  Romanism,  Mosaism  and  Islam- 
ism,  Spiritualism  and  Theosophism,  Gnosticism  and 
Agnosticism,  Christ  and  Antichrist :  and  then  fall- 
ing down  before  this  heterogeneous  chimera,  shout- 

Exod.  xxxii,  4.  iug  :  "  Thcsc  be  thy  gods,  O  Israel,  which  brought 
thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt."  Aye,  we  of  this 
Christian  age  and  land  need  the  First  Command- 
ment not  less  than  did  those  ancient  Israelites, 
circling  in  sacred  dance  around  the  golden  calf. 

Dent,  vi,  4, 5.  "  Hear,"  then,  "  O  Israel :  Jehovah  our  God  is 

one  Jehovah  :  and  thou  shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with 
all  thy  might."    Or,  as  the  great  Apostle  Paul  puts 

1  Cor.  viii,  4-6.  it  I  "  We  kuow  that  there  is  no  God  but  one  :  for 
though  there  are  that  are  called  gods,  whether  in 
heaven  or  on  earth ;  as  there  are  gods  many  and 
lords  many ;  yet  to  us  there  is  one  God,  the  Father, 
of  whom  are  all  things,  and  we  unto  him ;  and  one 
Lord,  Jesus  Christ,  through  whom  are  all  things, 
and  we  through  him  "  :  one  divine  fontal  source — 
even  the  eternal  Father;  one  divine  mediatorial 
channel — even  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

III.  Let  me  conclude  with  three  thoughts. 

Monotheism  And,  first,  our  indebtedness  to  the  Jew  for  mon- 

the  Jew  to  otheism,  or  the  doctrine  that  there  is  but  one  God. 
Mankind,      rpj^^  Mosaic  theology  is  the  one  solitary  religion  of 


366-368. 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  47 

antiquity  whose  constant  keynote  is  this  :  "  Hear,  Deut.  vi,  4. 
O  Israel :  Jehovah  our  God  is  one  Jehovah/' 
Accordingly,  the  First  Commandment  marks  a 
colossal  stride  forward  in  the  history  of  religion ; 
for  monotheism  is  the  basal  stone  of  Christian  wor- 
ship. And  Moses  seems  to  liave  derived  his  mon- 
otheism from  Abraham  himself.  Indulge  me  in 
the  luxury  of  quoting  a  passage  from  that  master 
in  Oriental  philology  and  comparative  religions, 
Professor  Max  Miiller : 

How  is  the  fact  to  be  explained  that  the  three  great  "Chips  from 
religions  of  the  world,  in  which  the  unity  of  the  Deity  forms  Workshop," 
the  keynote,  are  of  Semitic  origin,  and  that  the  Aryan  nations,  ^^j- ,j^si  P*^^ 
wherever  they  have  been  brought  to  the  worship  of  the  one 
God,  invoke  him  with  names  borrowed  from  the  Semitic  lan- 
guage? ....  Mohammedanism,  no  doubt,  is  a  Semitic  reli- 
gion, and  its  very  core  is  monotheism.  But  did  Mohammed 
invent  monotheism  ?  Did  he  invent  even  a  new  name  of  God  ? 
Not  at  all.  His  object  was  to  destroy  the  idolatry  of  the  Se- 
mitic tribes  of  Arabia,  to  dethrone  the  angels,  the  Jin,  the  sons 
and  daughters  who  had  been  assigned  to  Allah,  and  to  restore 
the  faith  of  Abraham  in  one  God.  And  how  is  it  with  Christi- 
tianity  ?  Did  Christ  come  to  preach  a  faith  in  a  new  God  ?  Did  he 
or  his  disciples  invent  a  new  name  of  God  ?  No  ;  Christ  came 
not  to  destroy,  but  to  fulfill ;  and  the  God  whom  he  preached 
was  the  God  of  Abraham.  And  who  is  the  God  of  Jeremiah, 
of  Elijah,  and  of  Moses?  We  answer,  the  God  of  Abraham. 
Thus  the  faith  in  the  one  living  God,  which  seemed  to  require 
the  admission  of  a  monotheistic  instinct,  grafted  in  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Semitic  family,  is  traced  back  to  one  man,  to  him  "  in 
whom  all  families  of  the  earth  shall  be  blessed."  If  from  our 
earliest  childhood  we  have  looked  upon  Abraham,  the  friend 
of  God,  with  love  and  veneration  ;  if  our  first  impressions  of  a 
truly  God-fearing  life  were  taken  from  him  who  left  the  land 
of  his  fathers  to  live  a  stranger  in  the  land  whither  God  had 
called  him,  who  always  listened  to  the  voice  of  God,  whether 
it  conveyed  to  him  the  promise  of  a  son  in  his  old  age,  or  the 
command  to  sacrifice  that  son,  his  only  son  Isaac,  his  venerable 
figure  will  assume  still  more  majestic  proportions  when  we  see 


48  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

in  him  the  life-spring  of  that  faith  which  was  to  unite  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  the  author  of  that  blessing  which  was 
to  come  on  the  Gentiles  through  Jesus  Christ. 

And  if  we  are  asked  how  this  one  Abraham  possessed  not 
only  the  primitive  intuition  of  God  as  he  had  revealed  himself 
to  all  mankind,  but  passed  through  the  denial  of  all  other 
gods  to  the  knowledge  of  the  one  God,  we  are  content  to 
answer  that  it  was  by  a  special  divine  revelation. 

Jehorahtobe       Secondly,  Jehovah  our  God  is  to  be  worshiped. 


"Worshiped 


And  he  is  to  be  worshiped,  because  he,  and  he 
alone,  is  Deity — the  one  self-existent,  eternal,  un- 
changeable, spiritual,  omnipresent,  omniscient, 
omnipotent,  holy,  just,  true,  gracious,  perfect,  infi- 


nite, only  Jehovah.^ 


iHow  profoundly  Hildebert,  Archbishop  of  Tours,  in  the 
eleventh  century,  sings  of  the  Everlasting  Jehovah  in  his 
^^ Alpha  et  Oniega,  Magne  Beits!*'  translated  by  Herbert  Kyn- 
astou  : 

First  and  Last  of  faith's  receiving, 

Source  and  sea  of  man's  believing, 

God,  whose  might  is  all  potential, 

God,  whose  truth  is  truth's  essential, 

Good  supreme  in  thy  subsisting. 

Good  in  all  thy  seen  existing; 

Over  all  things,  all  things  under, 

Touching  all,  from  all  asunder ; 

Centre  thou,  but  not  intruded, 

Compassing,  and  yet  included ; 

Over  all,  and  not  ascending, 

Under  all,  but  not  depending; 

Over  all,  the  world  ordaining. 

Under  all,  the  world  sustaining; 

All  without,  in  all  surrounding. 

All  within,  in  grace  abounding; 

Inmost,  yet  not  comprehended, 

Outer  still,  and  not  extended ; 

Over,  yet  on  nothing  founded. 

Under,  but  by  space  unbounded; 

Omnipresent,  yet  indwelling. 

Self-impelled,  the  world  impelling: 

Force,  nor  fate's  predestination, 

Sways  thee  to  one  alteration; 


THE   FIRST   COMMANDMENT.  49 

And  to  this  infinite  Jehovah  each  of  us  owes  tlie 
perfect  worship  of  spirit  and  soul  and  body.  We 
must  love  him  supremely,  revere  him   humbly, 

Ours  to-day,  thyself  forever, 
Still  commencing,  ending  never; 
Past  with  thee  is  time's  beginning, 
Present  ail  its  future  winning ; 
With  thy  counsel's  first  ordaining 
Comes  thy  counsel's  last  attaining; 
One  the  light's  first  radiance  darting 
And  the  elements  departing. 

The  original  Latin  is  as  follows  : 

Alpha  et  n,  magne  Deus, 

Heli,  Heli,  Deus  mens,  ^ 

Cujus  virtus  totum  posse, 

Cujus  sensus  totum  nosse 

Cujus  esse  summum  bonum, 

Cujus  opus  quidquid  bonum, 

Super  cuncta,  subter  cuncta, 

Extra  cuncta,  intra  cuncta; 

Intra  cuncta^  nee  inclusus, 

Extra  cuncta,  nee  exclusus, 

Super  cuncta,  nee  elatus, 

Subter  cuncta,  uec  substrata?; 

Super  totus,  praesidendo, 

Subter  totus,  sustinendo, 

Extra  totus,  complectendo, 

Intra  totus  es,  implendo. 

Intra,  nusquam  coarctaris. 

Extra,  nusquam  dilataris, 

Subter,  nuUo  fatigaris, 

Super,  nullo  snstentaria. 

Mundum  movens,  non  moverlfl, 

Locum  tenens.  non  teneris, 

Tempus  mutans,  non  mutaris, 

Vaga  firmans,  non  vagaris. 

Vis  externa,  vel  necesse 

Non  alternat  tuum  esse ; 

Heri  nostrum,  eras,  et  pridem 

Semper  tibi  nunc  et  idem; 

Tuum,  Deus,  hodiernum, 

Indivisum,  sempiternum; 

In  hoc  totum  praevidisti. 

Totum  simul  perfecisti, 

Ad  exemplar  summae  mentis 

Formam  praestans  elementis. 


50  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

study  him  homagefully,  believe  him  entirely,  trust 
him  absolutely,  obey  him  perfectly,  plan  for  him 
exclusively,  bow  to  him  cheerfully,  pray  to  him 
constantly,  praise  him  ceaselessly,  live  to  him 
wholly,  adore  him  everywhere  now  and  forever 
more.  Our  whole  life  is  to  be  an  unceasing  ex- 
halation of  incense. 

Jehovah  alone       Lastly  :  Jehovah  alone  is  to  be  worshiped.     ^*  No 
shi^ed  ^°^'  ^^^  ^^^  serve  two  masters  :  for  either  he  will  hate 

Matt,  vi,  24.  ii^Q  Qjie^  an^  iQye  the  other ;  or  else  he  will  hold  to 
the  one,  and  despise  the  other :  Ye  cannot  serve 
God  and  Mammon  " — Jehovah  and  Baal,  Jesus  and 
Self.  Loyalty  to  the  one  is  disloyalty  to  the  other. 
It  is  as  impossible  to  be  loyal  to  both,  as  it  is  to 
go  east  and  west  at  the  same  moment ;  if  you  go 
east,  you  go  from  west;  if  you  go  west,  you  go 
from  east.  Cease,  then,  trying  to  worship  Jehovah 
with  a  divided  heart.  The  only  sacrifice  which 
Jehovah  our  God  accepts  is  a  whole  burnt-offering. 

P8.ixxxvi,  11,12.  Unite  then  my  heart  to  fear  thy  name  :  so  shall  I 
praise  thee,  O  Lord  my  God,  with  my  whole  heart. 
May  the  life  of  each  of  us  be  a  perpetual  holocaust 
to  the  one  Jehovah,  acceptable  to  him  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord  ! 

Collect.  Almighty  and  merciful  God,  of  whose  only  gift  it  cometh 

that  thy  faithful  people  do  unto  thee  true  and  laudable  ser- 
vice ;  Grant,  we  beseech  thee,  that  we  may  so  faithfully  serve 
thee  in  this  life,  that  we  fail  not  finally  to  attain  thy  heavenly 
promises;  throughthemeritsof  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen. 


III. 

THE  SECOND  COMMANDMENT. 

Thou  Shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image,  nor 
the  likeness  of  any  form  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that 
is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under 
the  earth  :  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  unto  them, 
nor  serve  them :  for  I  Jehovah  thy  God  am  a  jealous 
God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  chil- 
dren, upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation  of 
them  that  hate  me ;  and  sliewing  mercy  unto  tliousands. 
of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my  commandments. 

Exodus  XX,  4-6. 


III. 

THE  SECOND  COMI^IANDMENT. 

WoESHiP  is  a  well-nigh  universal  instinct.    Plu-  Worship   a 

...  .  ^  ,  .  Human    lu- 

tarcn,  writing  against  Colotes  the  epicurean,  says :     stinct. 

If  you  go  through  the  world,  you  may  find  cities  without   Plutarch 
walls,  without  letters,  without  rulers,  without  houses,  without      J'^f  e"^^*i  ^C* 
money,  without  theatres  and  games  :  but  there  was  never  yet       xxxi. 
seen  nor  shall  be  seen  by  man  a  single  city  without  temples 
and  gods,  or  without  prayers,  oaths,  prophecies,  and  sacrifices, 
used  to  obtain  blessings  and  benefits,  or  to  avert  curses  and 
calamities  :  nay,  I  am  of  opinion  that  a  city  might  be  sooner 
built  without  any  ground  beneath  it,  than  a  commonwealth 
could  be  constituted  altogether  destitute  of  belief  in  the  gods, 
or,  being  constituted,  could  be  preserved. 

More  than  eighteen  centuries  have  rolled  away 
since  this  prince  of  ancient  biographers  bore  his 
testimony  to  the  universality  of  the  worshipful 
instinct.  And  the  flight  of  time  has  but  confirmed 
his  testimony;  wherever  travelers  have  pene- 
trated— whether  into  the  polar  regions,  the  heart 
of  the  Dark  Continent,  or  the  most  isolated  isles  of 
the  seas — they  have  never  found  a  race  so  degraded 
that  it  did  not  worship  something.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  has  never  been  a  race  so  civilized  that 
it  did  not  have  its  divinity  or  divinities :  recall 
Brahm  of  India,  Jupiter  of  Rome,  Zeus  of  Greece, 
Osiris  of  Egypt,  Jehovah  of  Canaan.  True,  there 
are  in  our  own  favored  times  a  few  who  profess 
themselves  to  be  atheists.    Nevertheless,  even  these 

53 


54  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

gentlemen  have  some  kind  of  a  god  of  their  own  : 
if  it  is  not  this  personal  Jehovah  of  Scripture,  it  is 
the  impersonal  Absolute  of  Law,  of  Force,  of 
Being,  of  something  or  other.  Even  Voltaire 
prayed  in  an  Alpine  thunderstorm.  Listen  then 
to  Francis  Bacon : 

"  Advancement^  It  is  an  assured  truth  and  a  conclusion  of  experience,  that 
Book  I.  '  a  little  or  superficial  knowledge  of  philosophy  may  incline  the 
mind  of  man  to  atheism,  but  a  farther  proceeding  therein  doth 
bring  the  mind  back  again  to  religion  ;  for  in  the  entrance  of 
philosophy,  when  the  second  causes,  which  are  next  unto  the 
senses,  do  offer  themselves  to  the  mind  of  man,  if  it  dwell  and 
stay  there,  it  may  induce  some  oblivion  of  the  highest  cause ; 
but  when  a  man  passeth  on  farther,  and  seeth  the  dependence 
of  causes  and  the  works  of  Providence,  then,  according  to  the 
allegory  of  the  poets,  he  will  easily  believe  that  the  highest 
link  of  nature's  chain  must  needs  be  tied  to  the  foot  of  Jupi- 
ter's chair. 

Significant  words  these,  for  all  sciolists.  No 
man  was  ever  born  an  atheist ;  if  he  has  become 
one,  it  is  because  he  has  suicidally  emasculated  his 
own  moral  nature.  This  innate  sense  of  God  is 
one  of  the  few  relics  of  Paradise.  Man,  therefore, 
needs  no  command  to  worship.  He  worships  as 
instinctively  as  he  breathes. 
Instinct  of       Alas,  this  instinct  of  worship  is  a  perverted  in- 

Worship.  . 

Perverted,  stinct,  or  rather  it  takes  a  perverted  direction. 
Man  is  finite,  and  therefore  cannot  help  conceiving 
the  Infinite  One  under  finite  conditions,  or  limita- 
tions, localizing  him  in  time  and  in  space.  This  is 
the  origin  of  idolatry,  or  worship  of  images.  Man, 
instinctively  worshiping  God,  yet  unable,  because 
finite,  to  conceive  him  except  under  limitations  of 
space  and   time  and  form,  instinctively  began  to 


/ 


A 


THE   SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  55 

make  represeDtations  of  God,  dow  in  this  form  and 
DOW  in  that,  in  order  to  aid  him  in  worship.  But 
nothing  was  easier  than  to  glide  from  making  these 
representations  of  God  to  the  worship  of  the 
epreseutations  themselves ;  thus  changing  the  glory  Rom.  i,  23. 
of  the  incorruptible  God  for  the  likeness  of  an 
image  of  corruptible  man,  and  of  birds,  and  four- 
footed  beasts,  and  creeping  things.  While,  then, 
man  needs  no  divine  command  to  worship,  for  he 
worships  instinctively,  he  does  need  to  have  his 
instinct  of  worship  divinely  regulated.  And  now 
we  are  ready  for  the  Second  Commandment. 

Thou  shall  not  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image.  The    Second 
n(yt^  the  likeness  of  any  form  that  is  in  heaven  above,      me™t™ 
or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  ^^^*^  ^*'  ^^ 
under  the  earth:   thou  shall  not  bow  dovm  thyself 
unto  them,  nor  serve  them :  for  I  Jehovah  thy  God 
am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  thefouHh 
generation  of  them  that  hate  me;  and  shewing  mei'cy 
unto  thousands,  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my 
commandments. 

Observe:  While  the  First  Commandment, 
"Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  Jeho- 
vah," forbids  polytheism,  or  the  worship  of  plural 
gods,  this  Second  Commandment,  "Thou  shalt  not 
make  unto  thee  any  graven  image  of  Jehovah,'' 
forbids  idolatry,  or  the  worship  of  images  of  God. 

The   Second    Commandment    naturally   cleaves 

into  two  parts — a  prohibition,  and  a  reason  for  the 

prohibition.  ^^     .^.   . 

T       *      1      /»  T    .  1  M  .  .  rm         ^^^   Divine 

I.    And,   first,    the   divine   prohibition:      Jnou     Prohibitiou. 


56  THE   TEN   CX)MMAKDMENTS. 

shall  not  maize  unto  thee  a  graven  image,  nor  the 
likeness  of  any  form  thai  is  in  heaven  above,  or  thai 
is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under 
the  earth :  thou  shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  unto  theni, 
nor  sei've  them.. 

1.  Observe   precisely   what   this   Second   Com- 
mandment forbids. 

Docs  Not  For-       (a)  And,  first,    nearativelv:  It  does  not  forbid 
bid  All  A?:t     ./  ^       ....  1  .       *T^       T  1        11-       ii> 

in  Worship,  all  iise  01  art  in  worship.     ±or  Jehovah  himseli 

commanded    Moses  to  adorn  the  tabernacle   with 

figures  of  cherubim,  and   trees,  and  flowers,  and 

pomegranates,  and  bells,  and  all  manner  of  cunning 

workmanship  in  engraving  and  embroidering,  in 

gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones,  in  blue  and 

purple  and  scarlet  and  all  manner  of  colors.     In 

fact,  the  imaging  faculty,  or  faculty  of  making 

images — imagination  in  the  primary  sense  of  the 

term-r-is  itself  a  divine  endowment,  and  therefore, 

like  any  other  divine  gift,  is  to  be  cultivated.     The 

lower  the  conception  of  God,  the  ruder  the  art  of 

the  worshiper:  recall  the  gross  figure  of  the  Pliih 

istine  Dagon,  the  coarse  image  of  the  Ephesian 

Diana,  the  vulgar  statue  of  the  Indian  Gautama, 

the   tawdry  figure  of  the  Italian   Bambino.     On 

the  other  hand,  the  higher  the  conception  of  God, 

the  more  exquisite  the  adornments  of  his  sanctuary. 

I  know  not  all  the  coming  ministries  of  art.     But 

I  do  believe  that,  as  the  Creator  himself,  the  Artist 

of   artists,  has   already   opened  the  May  for   tlie 

legitimate  use  of  form  and  color  and  poetiy  and 

music  in  his  sapctuary,  so  he  will  in  the  course  of 

his  unfoldings  open  the  way  for  the  legitimate  use 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  57 

of  sculpture  and  painting  and  gems.  No;  our 
commandment  does  not  forbid  the  use  of  all  art 
in  worship. 

(b)  What,  then,  does  the  Second  Commandment  But  Does  For- 

^     ,.,  «      -r      /.     ,.1        11    .  1    1    .  .     •  bidAllIdol- 

forbid?  It  forbids  all  idolatrous  representations  atrous  im- 
of  Deity.  And  this  for  the  reason  which  can  be  ^^^^' 
stated  best  in  the  Divine  Man's  own  words,  at 
Jacob's  well:  "God  is  Spirit;  and  they  that  John iv, 24. 
worship  him  must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth.'' 
That  is  to  say :  We  must  worship  God  according 
to  his  nature;  his  nature  is  spiritual,  and,  therefore, 
just  because  his  nature  is  spiritual,  we  must  wor- 
ship him  spiritually — spirit-wise,  not  image-wise  ; 
for  only  what  is  spiritual  in  us  can  worship  what 
is  spiritual  above  us.  Recall  that  memorable  scene 
when  the  great  Apostle  to  the  Gentiles,  standing  Acts  xvii,  22-31. 
in  the  midst  of  the  Areopagus,  reminds  his  Athe- 
nian auditors  of  a  saying  of  Aratus,  one  of  their  own 
poets :  "  We  are  also  his  offspring."  Then,  pointing 
to  the  mighty  Acropolis  towering  within  almost  a 
stone's  throw  of  him,  and  crowned  with  its  colos- 
sal and  dazzling  statue  of  Pallas  Athena,  he  adds : 
*'  Being  then  the  offspring  of  God  (the  spiritual 
God),  we  ought  not  to  think  that  the  Godhead  is 
like  unto  gold,  or  silver,  or  stone,  graven  by  art 
and  device  of  man.''  How  caustic  the  Scriptural 
irony  against  idolatry !  For  example :  Isaiah's 
description  of  the  stupidity  of  the  idol-maker  and 
idol-worshiper,  as  set  forth  in  his  forty-fourth 
chapter.  First,  the  prophet  takes  us  into  the  isaiahxiiv,9-20. 
blacksmith's  shop,  and  shows  us  the  smith  making 
an  axe,  and  working  among  the  coals,  and  fashion- 


58  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

ing  a  metal  idol,  and  becoming  exhausted  with  his 
toil  and  heat ;  but  the  idol  does  not  reciprocate  the 
smitii's  devotions.  Next,  the  prophet  takes  us  into 
the  carpenter's  shop,  and  shows  us  the  carpenter 
stretching  out  a  line  for  a  wooden  idol,  marking  it 
out  with  a  pencil,  shaping  it  with  carving  tools, 
and  making  it  like  the  figure  of  a  man,  that  he 
may  enshrine  it  in  his  house  as  a  household 
god.  Lastly,  the  prophet  takes  us  into  the  kitchen, 
and  shows  us  the  idol-maker  carving  half  of  a  pine 
log  into  an  image,  and  burning  the  other  half,  in 
order  to  bake  his  bread  and  roast  his  meat,  thus 
putting  his  god  on  an  equality  with  his  food.  The 
sarcasm  is  exquisite.  When  I  remember,  then,  that 
God  is  Spirit,  and  therefore  cannot  be  represented 
by  any  image,  I  do  not  wonder  at  the  iconoclasra 
of  Leo  the  Isaurian,  who  issued  his  edict  for  the 
demolition  of  all  images  throughout  his  empire; 
or  at  the  iconoclasm  of  sturdy  Oliver  Cromwell, 
who,  as  he  marched  here  and  therethrough  Britain, 
mutilated  with  sabre  and  gun  the  statue  of  this  or 
that  saint  in  the  English  cathedrals. 

2.  The  prohibition,  then,  of  the  Second  Com- 
mandment is  a  universal  need. 

(a)  The  Jew  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai  needed 
it.  He  had  just  emerged  from  idolatrous  Egypt — 
that  Egypt  which  was  wholly  given  over  to  image- 
worship.  Henc^  the  more  detailed  account  of  the 
Second  Commandment,  as  given  in  the  fourth 
chapter  of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy  : 

f.;«ut  iv  15-lJ.         Take  ye  therefore  good  heed  unto  yourselves  ;  for  ye  saw  no 
manner  of  form  on  the  day  that  Jehovah  spake  unto  you  in 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  69 

Horeb  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  :  lest  ye  corrupt  yourselves, 
and  make  you  a  graven  image  in  the  form  of  any  figure,  the 
likeness  of  male  or  female,  the  likeness  of  any  beast  that  is 
on  the  earth,  the  likeness  of  any  winged  fowl  that  flieth  in 
the  heaven,  the  likeness  of  anything  that  creepeth  on  the 
ground,  the  likeness  of  any  fish  that  is  in  the  water  under  the 
earth  :  and  lest  thou  lift  up  thine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  when 
thou  seest  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the  stars,  even  all  the 
host  of  heaven,  thou  be  drawn  away  and  worship  them,  and 
serve  them. 

And  yet,  strange  to  say,  notwithstanding  Abra- 
ham, the  founder  of  the  Jewish  nationality,  was 
himself  conspicuous  as  the  first  monotheist  after 
the  flood,  and  notwithstanding  the  emphatic  lan- 
guage  of  this   Second   Commandment,  scarcely  a 
month  passed  after  the  delivery  of  this  solemn  pro- 
hibition  against   idol-worship    before   these   same  Exod.  xxxii. 
Jews  demanded  of  Aaron  that  he  should  make  for 
them    a    golden  calf,  in  order    that   they    might 
worship  it.     Recall  also  the  story  of  Micah  the  Judg.  xvu. 
Ephraimite,  who  enshrined  in  his  house  a  molten 
image  and  gods  and  teraphim ;  the  story  of  Solo-  i  Kings  xi. 
mon,  who  went  after  Ashtoreth  and  Chemosh  and 
Molech ;  the  story  of  Jeroboam  the  son  of  Nebat,  i  Kings  xu. 
who  made  Israel  to  sin  by  setting  up  his  golden 
calves  at  Bethel  and  at  Dan ;  the  story  of  Ahaz,  2  Kings  xx. 
who  filled  Judah  and  the  temple  itself  with  im- 
ported idols.     Recall  the  awful  vision  which  the  Ezek.  viii,  ^12 
prophet  Ezekiel  saw  when,  rapt  in  spirit,  he  was  ' 
transported  from  Babylon  to  Jerusalem,  and  be- 
held at  the  north  of  the  temple  gate  the  image  of 
jealousy,  and,  entering  into  the  sacred   precincts, 
saw  the  still  darker  vision   of  the  chambers  of 
imagery,  wherein   stood  the   seventy   ancients   or 


60  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

presbyters  of  Israel,  swingiug  their  censers  of  in- 
cense before  the  paintings  of  every  form  of  creep- 
ing things,  and  abominable  beasts,  portrayed  upon 
the  wall  round  about,  paintings  evidently  copied 
from  the  Egyptian  system  of  idol-worship.  Aye, 
the  Jew  needed  the  Second  Commandment. 

(6)  And  not  only  did  the  Jew  need  the  Second 
Commandment:  even  modern  Christendom  needs 
it.  For  example  :  There  is  the  worship  of  images 
by  our  friends  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  I 
know  that  they  deny  it.  Nevertheless,  practically 
speaking,  they  do  adore  the  Madonna,  the  crucifix, 
the  Host,  relics,  ete.  ^  But  why  do  I  go  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  for  examples  of  image 
worship  ?  Behold  our  own  Protestant  Ecclesiola- 
try,  or  worship  of  the  Church  as  an  institution, 
bowing  down  before  her  ordinances  as  though  they 
were  ends  instead  of  using  them  as  means,  worship- 
ing her  sacraments  and  creeds  and  traditions  and 
ceremonies.  Behold  our  Protestant  Bibliolatry,  or 
rabbinic  worship  of  the  Bible  as  a  letter  and  even 
sacrament.  These,  and  such  as  these,  are,  practically 
speaking,  more  or  less  revered  as  symbols  of  Deity. 
Again  :  there  is  the  worship  of  intellect,  or  knowl- 
edge as  knowledge ;  the  worship,  for  instance,  of 
science,  of  literature,  of  aesthetics,  of  erudition — 

1 "  Luther  said  :  *  If  I  have  a  picture  of  Christ  in  my  heart, 
why  not  one  upon  canvas  ? '  We  answer:  Because  the  picture  in 
the  heart  is  capable  of  change  and  improvement,  as  we  our- 
selves change  and  improve  ;  the  picture  upon  canvas  is  fixed, 
and  holds  us  to  old  conceptions  which  we  should  outgrow." — 
"  Systematic  Theology,"  by  President  Augustus  Hopkins 
Strong,  D.  D.,  page  121. 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  61 

a  species  of  idolatry  into  which  University  students 
are  peculiarly  tempted.  Again :  there  is  the  wor- 
ship of  achievement :  whether  in  the  physical 
world,  as,  for  example,  the  adoration  of  the  thumb, 
as  being  the  mechanical  symbol  of  human  skill 
and  force ;  or  in  the  human  world,  as,  for  instance, 
the  adoration  of  heroes.  Has  not  Thomas  Carlyle 
delivered  a  course  of  lectures  on  "Hero-Wor- 
ship  "  ?  ^  Again :  there  is  the  worship  of  money ; 
and  this  St.  Paul  expressly  declares  is  idol-worship  ; 
"  Covetousness,  the  which  is  idolatry  f  aye,  even  we  coi.  m,  s. 
ourselves  are  ready  to  worship  a  calf,  provided  only 
that  it  be  made  of  gold.  How  the  venerable  patri- 
arch of  Uz  rebukes  us  ! 

If  I  have  made  gold  ray  hope,  job  xxxi,  24-28 

And  have  said  to  the  fine  gold,  Thou  art  my  confidence ; 

If  I  rejoiced  because  my  wealth  was  great, 

And  because  mine  hand  had  gotten  much ; 

This  also  were  an  iniquity  to  be  punished  by  the  judges, 

For  I  should  have  lied  to  God  that  is  above. 

Once  more,  and  comprehensively :  there  is  the 
worship  of  man,  the  deification  of  humanity,  the 
apotheosis  of  self;  and  in  thus  worshiping  man, 
we  are  indeed  idolaters;  for  God  created  man  in  Gen.  1,26, 27. 
his  own  image,  after  his  own  likeness  ;  and  in  thus 
worshiping  God's  image  and  likeness,  we  do  indeed 
exchange  the  truth  of  God  for  a  lie,  worshiping  Rom.  1,25. 
and  serving  the  creature,  rather  than  the  Creator, 
who  is  blessed  for  ever.     Amen. 

*"  Hero-worship,  heartfelt  prostrate  admiration,  submis- 
sion, burning,  boundless,  for  a  noblest  god-like  Form  of  Man 
— is  not  that  the  germ  of  Christianity  itself? " — Carlyle'a 
"  Heroes  and  Hero-Worship  "  Lecture  I. 

6 


62  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

The  Divine  H.  And  now  we  pass  from  the  divine  proliibi- 
thTprShiM-  tiou  of  idolatry  to  tlie  divine  reason  for  the 
tion.  prohibition : 

For  I  Jehovah  thy  God  am  a  jealous  Gody 
visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children, 
upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation  of 
them  that  hate  me ;  and  shewing  mercy  unto  thous- 
andsy  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my  command- 
ments. 

The  reason,  you  perceive,  is  presented  under  a 
twofold  aspect :  First,  Jehovah  is  a  jealous  God, 
and,  secondly,  Jehovah  visits  the  iniquity  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and  fourth 
generation  of  them  that  hate  him,  and  shows  mercy 
unto  the  thousandth  generation  of  them  that  love 
him.     Let  us  ponder  this  twofold  reason. 

Jehovah  a  1.  And,  first,  Jehovah  our  God  is  a  jealous  God. 
God.  ^"^  There  is  a  very  large,  but  very  expressive  word, 
which  the  theologians  use  :  it  is  the  word  "  an- 
thropomorphism'' — that  is,  the  attributing  to  God 
human  emotions  and  bodily  organs.  And  the 
word  is  as  valuable  as  it  is  large;  for  although  the 
Scriptural  representations  of  God  as  having  an 
eye,  an  ear,  a  hand,  a  voice,  and  the  like,  when 
taken  literally,  are  false,  yet,  when  taken  morally, 
they  are  sublimely  true.  And  the  Scripture  not 
only  ascribes  to  God  bodily  organs;  it  also  ascribes 
to  God  human  emotions.  For  example,  this  emo- 
tion, ''jealousy."  And  this  divine  jealousy  is 
founded  upon  a  conception  which  runs  throughout 
the  Bible — namely,  Jehovah  is  the  husband  of  his 

isa.  Uv,  5.  Church.  " Thy  Maker  is  thine  husband  '' — Jehovah 


THE   SEOOXD   CO.>[MANDMEN-T.  63 

of  hosts  is  his  name-      The  forty-fifth  Psalm   is  Ps.  xiy. 

based  entirely  upon  this  conception;  so  also  is  the 

elaborate  metaphor  in  the  fifth  chapter  of  St.  Paul's  Eph.  v,  22-33. 

Letter  to  the  Ephesians.     One  of   the  very  last 

visions  of  New  Jerusalem    seen    by  the  exile  in 

Patmos  is  that  of  the  Lamb  and  his  bride  reclin-  Rev.  xix,  7-9; 

xxi  2. 

ing  at  the  heavenly  marriage  supper.     Now  you 

see  the  meaning  of  tliis  word  "jealous."    Idolatry  is 

infidelity  to  the  most  sacred  of  vows — namely,  the 

divinely  marital  vow.     Kecall  one  of  these  images 

which  Ezekiel  saw  towering  north  of  the  temple  :  Ezek.  viii,3. 

it  was  the  image  of  Jealousy,  standing  as  a  rival 

to  Jehovah,  provoking  the  infinitely  chaste  One  to 

jealousy.     Here  is  the  key  to  the  expression  which 

our  Lord  so  often  uses,  "An  evil  and  adulterous  Matt,  xii,    39; 

xvi  -L 

generation,'^  the  Jewish  Church  being  false  to  the 

vow  of  the  divine  marriage.      Beware,  then,  of 

worshiping  divine  images  or  rival  deities  ;  for,  as 

Moses  afterward  said  to  these  same  Jews :  "  Thou  Exod.  xxxiv,  u. 

shalt  worship  no  other  God :   for  Jehov^ah,  whose 

name  is  Jealous,  is  a  jealous  God."     Or,  as  the 

Apostle  Paul  phrases  it:  "I  am  jealous  over  you  2Cor. xi,2. 

with  a  godly  jealousy  (a  jealousy  of  God) ;  for  I 

espoused  you  to  one  husband,  that  I  might  present 

you  as  a  pure  virgin  to  Christ." 

2.  The  other  aspect  of  the  reason  for  the  prohibition  Law  of  He- 
is  set  forth  thus  :  Vidting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  ^^^^^y- 
upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upcm  the  fourth 
generation  of  them  thai  hate  me  ;  and  shewing  mercy 
unto  thousands,  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my 
commandments.  It  is  the  ancient,  Sinaitic  enunci- 
ation of  the  great  modern  doctrine  of  filiation,  or 


64  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

law  of  heredity.  This  law  of  heredity,  or  personal 
inheritance,  the   Divine   Man   himself  re-asserted 

juhnui,6.  when  he  declared  to  Nicodemus  :  "That  which  is 

born  of  the  flesh  is  flesh  ;  and  that  which  is  born  of 
the  spirit  is  spirit.'^  And  the  Apostle  Paul  echoes 
the  enunciation  of  this  same  great  law  when  he 

Gai.vj,7.  declares:  "Whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that  shall 

he  also  reap.'^  Now  the  Second  Commandment 
presents  this  great  law  of  heredity  under  a  twofold 
aspect — a,  merciless,  and  a  merciful. 

Merciless  As-       (a)  And,  first,  the  merciless  aspect  of  heredity  : 
redity.  "  Visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  chil- 

dren, upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  genera- 
tion of  them  that  hate  me." 

I  need  enter  into  no  argument  to  prove  this ;  we 
have  painful  ocular  proof  every  day.  Everybody 
knows  that  there  are  hereditary  diseases;  for  in- 
7  stance,  leprosy,  scrofula,  consumption,  insanity,  and  ?  ^ 
a  nameless  disease  far  more  dreadful.  How  care-  ^ 
fully  the  medical  examiners  in  our  life  insurance 
companies  question  the  applicant  touching  ancestral 
maladies.  And  as  there  are  hereditary  diseases,  so 
there  are  hereditary  vices  :  for  example,  indolence, 
mendacity,  avarice,  intemperance,  crime.  Of  course, 
there  are  exceptions,  the  difference  between  the 
character  of  tlie  father  and  the  character  of  the 
mother  complicating  the  problem.  The  monothe- 
istic Hezekiah  was  the  son  of  the  polytheistic  Ahaz, 
and  the  father  of  the  still  more  polytheistic  Manas- 
seh.  Aaron  Burr  was  a  son  of  the  excellent  Dr. 
Burr,  President  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  and 
a    grandson   of   the   saintly   Jonathan   Edwards. 


THE   SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  65 

Nevertheless,  this  great  law  of  heredity,  or  moral 
entail,  still  holds.  Moral  habit  is  as  hereditable  as 
bodily  gait.  In  reading  the  annals  of  the  Jewish 
kings,  how  often  we  meet  with  the  phrase :  "  He 
walked  in  the  way  of  his  fathers.^'  No  one  familiar 
with  the  story  of  Abraham  can  fail  to  be  struck  by 
a  tendency  to  craft  which  marked  them  all — Sarah, 
Lot,  Laban,  Rebecca,  Jacob,  Rachel,  Abraham  him- 
self. The  twelve  sons  of  Jacob  transmitted  to  their 
respective  descendants  their  own  peculiarities ;  in 
fact,  the  dying  Jacob,  in  pronouncing  his  patri-  cen.  xUx,  1-27. 
archal  blessing,  foretold  the  permanent  traits  which 
would  distinguish  the  twelve  tribes.  The  Jew 
himself ;  what  a  striking  example  he  is  to  this  day 
of  the  law  of  heredity !  As  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes  has  somewhere  stated  :  "A  man  is  an  om- 
nibus, in  which  all  his  ancestors  are  seated."  Yes  ; 
the  soul,  not  less  than  the  body,  has  its  physiology. 
Herein,  to  large  extent,  is  the  significance  of  Greek 
tragedy ;  the  drama  is  tragical,  because  the  son  is 
made  to  suffer  on  account  of  his  ancestor.  When 
Jesus  was  about  to  heal  the  man  born  blind,  his 
disciples  asked  him,  saying  :  "  Rabbi,  who  did  sin,  John  ix,  2. 
this  man,  or  his  parents,  that  he  should  be  born 
blind  ?  "  The  question  doubtless  sprung  from  the 
instinctive  recognition  of  this  law  of  personal  in- 
heritance. This  law  it  is  which  accounts  for  the 
sad  fact  of  the  universal  sinfulness.  Adam  lived  Gen.  v,  3. 
an  hundred  and  thirty  years,  and  begat  a  son  in 
his  own  likeness,  after  his  image,  and  called  his 
name  Seth.  This  tells  the  whole  dark  story  of  hu- 
manity's fall.     For   Adam   himself  had   already 


66  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

fallen,  how  soon  after  his  creation  we  are  not  told ; 
we  only  know  that  when  he  begat  Seth  he  had 
eaten  of  the  forbidden  fruit ;  and  so,  in  virtue  of 
his  own  fatherhood,  he  entailed  on  his  child  a  sinful 
heritage ;  he  begat  a  son  in  his  own  likeness ;  him- 
self fallen,  his  son  was  also  fallen.  And  the  fall 
was  propagated  according  to  the  law  of  heredity 
throughout  all  mankind.  As  the  electric  spark, 
discharging  itself  on  the  first  link  of  a  chain,  con- 
veys itself  throughout  the  whole  length  of  that 
chain,  however  long,  however  complex,  so  the 
penal  consequences  of  Adam's  sin,  falling  on  him- 
self as  the  first  of  the  human  series,  convey  them- 
selves by  the  simple  law  of  propagation  throughout 
the  whole  line  of  humanity  to  the  farthest  member. 
The  Apostle  Paul  puts  the  case  with  an  emphasis 
Bom.  T,  12.  terribly  clear  :  "As  through  one  man  sin  entered 
into  the  world,  and  death  through  sin ;  and  so 
death  passed  unto  all  men,  for  that  all  sinned.'' 
That  is  to  say  :  Adam's  sin,  so  far  as  its  penal  con- 
sequences are  concerned,  is  visited  upon  all  hu- 
manity ;  mankind  fell  when  Adam  fell.  Not  that 
the  couplet  which  some  of  us  were  taught  in  our 
childhood — 

In  Adam's  fall 
We  sinned  all, 

is  true.  Not  that  mankind  is  guilty  of  Adam's 
sin :  that  is  simply  impossible ;  personal  responsi- 
bility or  conscious  consent  is  necessary  to  personal 
guilt.  But  mankind  is  heir  to  Adam's  fallen 
estate.  We  need,  then,  neither  the  doctrine  of 
imputation,  nor  the  doctrine  of  federal  headship, 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  67 

in  order  to  establish  the  doctrine  of  universal  sin- 
fulness. Asa  polluted  fountain  pollutes  the  stream 
which  flows  from  it,  or  as  a  degenerate  root  yields 
degenerate  fruit,  or  as  a  diseased  egg  unfolds  into  a 
diseased  chick,  so  the  fallen  Adam  yields  a  fallen 
posterity.  Earth's  sinful  characters  are  the  result 
of  the  law  of  heredity.  The  doctrine  of  original 
sin,  or,  as  I  would  rather  say,  hereditary  sinfulness, 
is  therefore  strictly  a  scientific  doctrine.  Physi- 
ology itself  inexorably  holds  us  here  to  what  the 
Christian  Church  calls  orthodoxy. 

But  to  return  to  our  commandment.  The  iniq- 
uity of  the  fathers,  which  Jehovah  declares  he  will 
visit  upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  fourth 
generation  of  them  that  hate  him,  is  the  iniquity 
of  violating  the  first  two  commandments — the 
iniquity  of  polytheism,  or  the  worshiping  any  god 
except  Jehovah  the  God  of  Israel ;  and  the  iniq- 
uity of  idolatry,  or  the  worshiping  of  images  of 
Jehovah.  And  this  iniquity,  as  we  saw  in  our 
study  of  the  phrase,  "Jehovah  is  a  jealous  God/' 
is  the  being  recreant  to  the  holiest  vow  conceivable, 
the  vow  of  heavenly,  immortal  Bridal.  There  is 
a  nameless,  hereditary  disease  born  of  unchastity; 
and  the  iniquity  of  our  commandment  which  Je- 
hovah visits  upon  the  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  is  the  special,  awful  heirloom  of 
conjugal  infidelity  to  the  Divine  Bridegroom.  What 
an  appalling  illustration  is  idolatrous  heathenism  ! 

But  you  interrupt  me  with  an  objection.     "  This  ^^^e r ed i  t.y 
law  of  heredity,"  you  tell  me,  "tends  to  quench      Quenches 

'' ^      ''  '  A  Responsi- 

personal  responsibility."  biiity. 


6S 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Answer : 
Character 
the   Stan- 
dard of 
Judgment. 


Ezek.  xviii. 


Learn,  then,  I  answer,  a  lesson  from  the  analogy  of 
the  human  body :  although  confessedly  propagated, 
it  is  also  confessedly  a  separate,  independent  indi- 
viduality. Again  :  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
in  this  discussion,  to  keep  clearly  and  steadily  in 
mind  the  distinction  between  personal  guilt  and 
inherited  disaster,  or,  as  the  philosophers  phrase  it, 
unfortunate  "environment."  The  best  possible 
answer  to  your  objection  is  the  eighteenth  chapter 
of  the  book  of  Ezekiel — a  chapter  in  which  the 
prophet,  replying  to  his  countrymen^s  complaint 
that  they  were  being  punished  for  their  fathers' 
sins,  vindicates  the  equity  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment by  shewing  that  God  practically  recognizes 
the  fact  of  personal  responsibility  in  that  he  awards 
to  every  man  according  to  his  own  deeds,  not  ac- 
cording to  the  deeds  of  another.  In  the  outset,  the 
prophet  sets  forth  the  people's  complaint :  "  What 
mean  ye,  that  ye  use  this  proverb  concerning  the 
land  of  Israel,  saying.  The  fathers  have  eaten  sour 
grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge  ?  " 
That  is  to  say,  stripping  the  proverb  of  its  figura- 
tive aspect,  "  Why  must  we  suffer  the  penalty  of 
our  father's  sins  ? "  The  rest  of  the  chapter  is  a 
vindication  of  the  equity  of  God's  dealings,  showing 
that  he  retributes  to  every  man  according  to  the 
man's  own  personal  character.  I  can  allude  only  to 
the  salient  points.  First,  the  prophet  takes  the  case 
of  a  just  man  :  "  If  a  man  be  just,  and  hath  not  lifted 
up  his  eyes  to  the  idols  of  Israel,  and  hath  exe- 
cuted true  judgment  between  man  and  man,  and  hath 
walked  in  my  statutes ;  he  is  just,  he  shall  surely  live, 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  69 

saith  Lord  Jehovah."   That  is  to  say,  whatever  this 
man's  ancestry  or  whatever  his  posterity,  God  will 
reward  him  according  to  his  own  personal  character. 
Secondly,  the  prophet  takes  the  case  of  a  bad  son  of 
a  good  father :  If  this  just  man  "  beget  a  son  that  is 
a  robber,  a  shedder  of  blood,  and  hath  lifted  up 
his  eyes  to  the  idols,  hath  committeth  abomination  ; 
he  shall  surely  die,  his  blood  shall  be  upon  him.'' 
That  is  to  say,  God  will  punish  this  man  for  his 
own   sin,   no    matter    how    saintly   his    ancestor. 
Thirdly,  the  prophet  takes  the  case  of  a  good  son 
of  a  bad  father :  "  If  he  beget  a  son  that  seeth  all 
his  father's  sins  which  he  hath  done,  and  consid- 
ereth,  and  doeth  not  such  like,"  if  he  "hath  exe- 
cuted my  judgments,  hath  walked  in  my  statutes ; 
he  shall  not  die  for  the  iniquity  of  his  father ;  he 
shall  surely  live."     That  is  to  say,  God  will  reward 
this  man  for  his  OAvn  righteousness,  no  matter  how 
wicked  his  ancestor.     Fourthly,  the  prophet  puts 
the  case  broadly,  showing  that  God  is  equitable  in 
all  his  awards,  retributing,  not  according  to  inher- 
ited character,  but  according  to  personal :   "  The 
soul  that  sinneth,  it  shall  die :  the  son  shall  not 
bear  the  iniquity  of  the  father,  neither  shall  the 
father  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  son ;  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  righteous  shall  be  upon  him,  and  the 
wickedness  of  the  wicked   shall   be  upon   him." 
That  is  to  say,  God  will  deal  with  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  own  personal  character,  irrespective 
of  his  ancestry.     Lastly,  the  prophet  disposes  of 
the  charge  against  the  justice  of  God,  by  represent- 
ing him  as  expostulating  with  sinful  man;   and 


70  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

this  on  the  basis  of  each  man's  own  personal  re- 
sponsibility :  "  O  house  of  Israel,  is  not  my  way 
equal  ?  are  not  your  ways  unequal  ?  Therefore  I 
will  judge  you,  O  house  of  Israel,  every  one  ac- 
cording to  his  ways,  saith  the  Lord  Jehovah  :  re- 
turn ye,  and  turn  yourselves  from  all  your  trans- 
gressions ;  make  you  a  new  heart  and  a  new  spirit : 
for  why  will  ye  die,  O  house  of  Israel?  have  I  any 
pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  wicked?  wherefore 
turn  ye  from  your  wicked  ways,  that  ye  may  live, 
saith  the  Lord  Jehovah."  That  is  to  say,  God  will 
render  to  every  man  according  to  his  own  works, 
not  according  to  somebody  else's.  Such  is  Eze- 
kieFs  theodicy,  or  vindication  of  God's  ways  toward 
men.     Tremendous  as  the  law  of  heredity  is,  it 

Rom.xiv,  12.  does  uot  qucuch  personal  responsibility.  "Each 
one  of  us  shall  give  account  of  himself  to  God." 
Jehovah's  government  is '  as  equitable  as  it  is 
invincible. 

Objection:  But   I    hear   another   objection:  "This  law  of 

UnYust'^ind  lieredity,"  you  tell  me,  "is  unjust  and  cruel;  it 
Cruel.  makes  the  innocent  suffer  for  the  guilty ;  according 

to  this  law,  the  innocent  child  of  the  drunkard  in- 
herits a  tenclency  to  drunkenness,  the  innocent 
child  of  the  criminal  inherits  a  tendency  to  crime; 
look  at  the  great  heathen  world,  which  for  thous- 
ands of  years  has  constituted  the  vast  majority  of 
mankind;  generation  after  generation  they  have 
inherited  the  wretched  heirloom  entailed  on  them 
by  their  heathen  ancestors.  How,  then,  will  you 
reconcile  the  awful  working  of  this  law  of  heredity 
with  the  character  of  a  holy  and  loving  God?" 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  71 

Young  gentlemen,  it  is  indeed  a  terribly  grave  Answer :  He- 
question,  demanding  not  only  recognition,  but  also  Hope  of  So^ 
fairest,  most  thoughtful  consideration.  Now,  I  dc^j- 
might  content  myself  with  answering  that  you  do 
not  object  to  the  working  of  this  law  of  heredity 
in  other  parts  of  the  organic  world.  For  example, 
you  do  not  object  to  it  when  you  undertake  to  im- 
prove your  stock  of  strawberries,  or  your  breed  of 
cattle.  Why,  then,  do  you,  who,  it  may  be,  zeal- 
ously insist  on  the  universality  and  stability  of  law 
in  nature,  demand  that  in  the  case  of  man,  God 
should  abruptly  depart  from  his  usual  order  and 
method,  and  work  a  miraculous  exception  ?  Would 
you  have  a  God  of  law  in  matter,  and  a  God  of 
whim  in  morals?  But  I  prefer  to  give  a  broader, 
deeper  answer.  Man  is  mortal.  How,  then,  shall 
the  continuance  of  the  race  on  earth  be  secured  ? 
I  can  conceive  of  but  two  ways.  First,  by  the 
continuous  creation  of  men,  or  a  perpetual  repeti- 
tion of  the  miracle  of  Eden,  the  ceaseless  bringing 
into  the  world,  fresh  from  the  Maker's  hand,  of  a 
succession  of  created  Adams,  or  parentless  Mel- 
chizedeks.  But  under  such  a  condition  of  things 
there  would  be,  in  all  probability,  a  repetition  of 
Adam's  painful  story.  For,  as  was  shown  in  my 
introductory  lecture,  the  very  fact  of  our  finiteness 
invites  us  to  sin ;  the  very  fact  that  there  are 
limits  beckons  us  to  cross  those  limits — ^that  is,  to 
"  trans-gress."  Again,  there  would  not  only  be, 
in  all  likelihood,  a  repetition  of  Adam's  fall; 
there  would  also  bo,  what  is  now  mercifully 
spared  us,  the  personal  guilt  of  a  separate,  personal 


72  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

falling.  Once  more :  there  would  be  no  bond  of 
consanguinity.  Disastrously  as  this  law  of  heredity 
has  worked  in  this  fallen  world,  the  race  would 
have  been  in  a  far  worse  state  without  it ;  an  inor- 
ganic, isolated,  atomic  state  of  eternal  war  between 
man  and  man,  with  no  organic,  molecular,  corporate 
bond  of  union  between  them.  Secondly,  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  race  on  earth  can  be  secured  in 
the  way  in  which  the  Creator  does  actually  secure 
it — namely,  by  the  law  of  propagation.  Heredity 
it  is  which  renders  this  profound  fact — Society — 
possible.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  man-kind,  be- 
cause there  is  such  a  thing  as  meu-kinued.^ 

It  is  almost  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value 
of  consanguinity  as  a  curbing,  uplifting,  unifying 
force.     Heredity !     Why  it  is  my  real  hope  under 
God  for  humanity. 
Merciful   As-       (6)  And  SO  we  gladly  turn  from  the  merciless 
redity.  aspect  of   this   law  of   heredity   to    its    merciful 

aspect :  "  Shewing  mercy  unto  thousands,  of  them 
that  love  me  and  keep  my  commandments." 

Observe:  While  Jehovah  visits  the  penalty  of 
bad  fathers  upon  their  children  unto  the  third  and 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  him,  he  visits 
the  reward  of  good  fathers  upon  their  children 
unto  the  thousandth  generation  of  them  that  love 
him  and  keep  his  commandments.  Not  that  these 
ordinals — third,  fourth,  thousandth — are  to  be 
taken  with  arithmetical  exactitude ;  that  would  be 

*  Compare  Hamlet's 

A  little  more  than  kin,  and  less  than  kind. 

—"■  Hamlet,"  Act  1,  te.  f. 


THE   SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  73 

idolatry  of  the  letter:  but  they  are  to  be  taken  ia 
their  moral  dimensions;  that  would  be  recognition 
of  the  spirit.  They  set  forth  the  gracious  truth 
that  mercy  glories  against  and  over  judgment,  or  jamesii,i3. 
the  unspeakable  transcendence  of  goodness :  Vis- 
iting the  iniquity  upon  the  third  and  fourth  gener- 
ation of  them  that  hate  Jehovah,  but  showing 
mercy  upon  the  thousandth  generation  of  them 
that  love  him  and  keep  his  commandments.  What 
a  superb  illustration  of  this  the  story  of  Abraham 
and  his  posterity  is! 

Precisely  here,  let  me  repeat,  is  my  real  hope  Heredity  the 
for  humanity.  Let  me  apply  the  point  to  the  Missionary 
missionary  enterprise.  This  law  of  heredity  is  Triumph, 
for  me  a  real  inspiration  for  foreign  missions.  Of 
course,  it  is  our  blessed  duty  to  save  all  we  pos- 
sibly can  of  the  heathen  adults.  But,  after  all, 
the  true  hope  for  the  missionaiy  cause,  surveyed 
in  its  broadest  and  deepest  scope,  lies  not  in  the 
conversion  of  adults,  but  in  the  conversion  of 
children  ;  for  it  is  the  children  of  this  generation 
who  are  to  be  the  ancestors  of  the  coming  gener- 
ations, and  who  will  therefore  shape  the  coming 
jiistory.  While,  then,  our  missionaries  must  an- 
nounce the  glad  tidings  to  the  heathen  adults, 
they  must  take  special  pains  to  save  the  heathen 
children  ;  for  converted  children  are,  according  to 
God's  own  law  of  heredity,  the  mighty  hope  of 
our  world's  future.  I  admit  that  this  law  has 
hitherto  worked  most  disastrously.  But  I  believe 
in  God ;  I  believe  in  his  gracious  purposes ;  I 
believe  that  he  will  redeem  humanitv  ;  I  believe 
7 


74  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

that  he  will  redeem  humanity  in  accordance  with 
means ;  I  believe  that  the  means  he  will  use  in 
redeeming  humanity  is  this  same  law  of  heredity. 
In  other  words,  I  believe  in  what  Horace  Bush- 
nell  quaintly  calls  "  the  out-populating  power  of  the 
Christian  stock."  Taking  into  account  the  whole 
possible  range  of  coming  history,  and  remembering 

2Peteriii,  8.  that  ouc  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a  thousand  years, 
and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day,  I  firmly  believe 
that  the  advantages  of  this  law  of  heredity  will 
yet  vastly  counterbalance  its  disadvantages,  both 
present  and  past.  And  when  the  Church  of  the 
living  God  shall  fully  awake  to  the  conception  of 
the  tremendous  resources  of  evangelistic  victory 
latent  in  this  law  of  heredity,  and  shall  accordingly 
vastly  multiply  the  number  of  those  whom  she 
sends  forth  to  address  themselves  specifically  to  the 
work  of  saving  the  heathen  little  children,  thus 
putting  into  new,  vigorous  operation  the  law  of 
heredity  on  its  merciful  side,  then  shall  the  mis- 
sionary enterprise  take  a  colossal  stride  forward, 

i8a.ixvi,8.  and  nations  shall  be  burn  in  a  day.  The  law 
of  heredity  is  the  right  arm  of  the  missionary 
cause.  The  family  institution  is  the  hope  of  the 
Avorld. 

III.  Let  me  offer  in  conclusion  three  thoughts  : 

Heredity  the       1.  First,  heredity  the  key  to  social  regeneration. 

eia[  Regen-  I  know  that  it  is  the  fashion  to  charge  the  w^oes  of 

eration.         humanity  to  what  is  called  a  faulty  construction  of 

society.     But  society  is  not  a  human  construction  ; 

it  is  neither  an  invention,  nor  a  convention,  nor  a 

fabric.     Society  is  a  divine  organism,  a  colossal 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  75 

moral  person.  Hence  the  deep  meaning  of  such  ex- 
pressions as  ''  body  politic,"  ^'  espj^it  de  corps/^  "  the 
national  will,"  "  the  national  conscience,"  and  the 
like.  Herein  was  one  of  the  great  meanings  of 
our  late  civil  war  :  it  was  fought  to  decide  the 
question  whether  this  union  of  States  is  a  nation, 
or  merely  a  confederation.  You  know  how  that 
issue  was  decided.  The  United  States  is  one 
national  person,  each  member  of  the  civic  body 
contributing  liis  own  personal  character  to  the 
national  organism.  This  solemn  truth  casts  light 
on  a  memorable  saying  of  our  Lord,  uttered  on  the 
occasion  of  his  terrible  arraignment  of  the  Jewish 
hierarchy  : 

Behold,   I    send    unto  you  prophets,   and  wise   men,   and    Matt,  xxiii,  Si- 
scribes  :  some  of  them  shall  ye  kill  and  crucify  ;  and  some  of 
them  shall  ye  scourge  in  your  synagogues,  and  persecute  from 
city  to  city  ;  that  upon  you  may  come  all  the  righteous  blood  ♦ 

shed  on  the  earth,  from  the  blood  of  Abel  the  righteous  unto 
the  blood  of  Zachariah  son  of  Barachiah,  whom  ye  slew 
between  the  sanctuary  and  the  altar :  verily  I  say  unto  you, 
All  these  things  shall  come  upon  this  generation. 

But  the  assassination  of  Zachariah  had  occurred 
more  than  eight  hundred  years  before;  and  yet 
Jesus  charges  his  own  contemporaries  with  that 
assassination :  "  That  upon  you  may  come  the 
blood  of  Zachariah,  whom  ye  slew  between  the 
sanctuary  and  the  altar."  It  was  because  the 
Jewish  nationality  was  an  organized  corporate 
unity  that  we  can  understand  tliis  fearful  saying 
of  our  Lord.  Being  sons  of  those  who  had  killed  Matt.  xxUi,  si. 
the  prophets,  they  were  filling  up  the  measure  of 
their  fathers.     The  cup  of  their  iniquity  had  been 


76  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

gradually  filling  from  generation  to  generation, 
from  century  to  century;  and  now  at  length,  in 
the  Messiah's  own  day,  the  cup  was  full,  and  all 
those  crimes,  in  respect  to  their  penalty,  were 
visited  on  that  'generation.  The  overlying  mass 
may  accumulate  to  such  a  degree  that  at  last  a 
solitary  snowflake  dislodges  the  avalanche.  The 
Hebrew  nationality  from  Abraham  onward  was 
one  person,  and  the  blow  that  crushed  it  fell  in  our 
Saviour's  own  generation.  It  is  folly,  then,  to  talk 
of  "  relaying  the  foundations  of  society,"  or 
"re-adjusting  human  relations,"  or  "projecting 
society  on  a  new  basis."  You  might  as  well 
undertake  to  re-adjust  human  anatomy,  transposing 
eyes  and  lungs,  ears  and  toes.  No ;  the  woes  of 
society  are  to  be  annihilated,  not  by  legislation, 
not  by  bureaus  of  reform,  not  even  by  education ; 
but  by  taking  advantage  of  God's  great  law  of 
heredity.  For  men,  not  less  than  animals,  can  be 
improved  by  stirpiculture,  or  selective  breeding. 
The  hope  of  the  world  is  in  the  family  institution. 
A  Summons  2.  Secondly,  a  summons  to  personal  heroism. 
Hefo^sm?^^  For  it  is  quite  likely  that  there  are  some  here  to- 
day who  are  saying  in  their  hearts :  "  Mr.  Lecturer, 
I  have  been  listening  patiently  to  you  this  afternoon. 
But  what  good  does  your  doctrine  do  me?  I 
myself  am  a  victim  of  this  law  of  heredity  ;  I  was 
trained  under  most  adverse  circumstances ;  I  can- 
not rise  above  them  ;  this  law  of  yours  simply 
dooms  me ;  I  am  disheartened."  Well,  friend,  I 
do  sympathize  with  you  in  your  great  misfortune ; 
I  do  pity  you  from  the  depth  of  my  heart.     But  I 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  77 

ask  you  to  try  to  take  a  high  view  of  things.  I 
know  it  is  very  easy  for  me  to  offer  you  this  ex- 
hortation; it  costs  me  nothing,  while,  if  you  accept 
it,  it  may  cost  you  much.  Still  it  is  my  duty,  as 
a  Christian  minister,  to  try  to  inspire  you  to  a 
heroic  life.  Struggle,  then,  to  rise  above  circum- 
stances. Kemember  that  God  judges  us,  not  by 
our  capacities,  but  by  our  efforts.  He  awards  our 
destinies,  not  according  to  our  endowments,  but  ac- 
cording to  our  struggles.  Living,  as  we  do,  in  a 
fallen  world,  the  real  struggle  of  life  largely  con- 
sists in  the  endeavor  to  overcome  the  disadvantages, 
external  and  internal,  hitherto  entailed  by  heredity. 
And  in  thus  grappling  with  the  misfortunes  of  our 
entail,  in  this  attempt  to  soar  to  a  better  world,  we 
have  a  Divine  Co-operator.  What  was  the  Incar- 
nation itself,  surveyed  on  its  human  side,  but  the 
Son  of  God  becoming  flesh,  so  that  he  might  get 
himself  into  personal  connection — as  the  French 
say,  en  rappooi — with  the  human  race?  Since  the  Heb.ii,  14-1& 
children  are  sharers  in  flesh  and  blood,  he  also 
himself  in  like  manner  partook  of  the  same. 
Being  born  of  a  woman,  he,  like  ourselves,  came 
under  the  law  of  heredity.  And  so  we  have  a 
High  Priest  who  can  be  touched  with  the  feelins: 
of  our  infirmities,  having  been  tempted  in  all 
points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin ;  and  there- 
fore, in  that  he  himself  hath  suffered  being  tempted, 
he  is  able  to  succor  them  that  are  tempted.  Be  of 
good  cheer,  then,  young  friend ;  for  you  have  a 
Divine  Man  for  your  ally  in  your  struggle  out  of 
bad  environment. 


78  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Jesus,  God's  3.  Lastly,  worship  the  Divine  Man  himself. 
b'e^^Wor^  ^^^J  while  our  Second  Commandment  forbids  idola- 
shiped  try,  yet  the  idolatry  it  forbids  is  of  human  con- 

struction:  ''Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a 
graven  image  or  likeness  of  any  form  that  is  in 
heaven,  or  on  earth,  or  under  earth/'  Nevertheless 
there  is  a  divine  image  whom  we  must  all  worship : 

Col.  i,  15.  it  is  Jesus  Christ,  the  image  of  the  invisible  God, 

ueb.  i,  3.  the  effulgence  of  his  glory,  the  very  impress  of  his 

substance.  And  just  because  he  is  the  sufficient 
image  of  God,  we  need  no  other  image ;  indeed,  for 
us  to  undertake  to  make  another,  would  not  only 
be  to  disobey  the  Second  Commandment,  but  also 
to  be  guilty  of.the  sacrilege  of  pronouncing  Christ's 
mission  into  the  world  a  failure.  No;  Christ's 
power  in  the  world  is  largely  owing  to  the  fact 
that  he  is  the  visible  image  of  the  invisible  God.* 
And  Christ's  power,  as  God's  image,  is  ever  grow- 

HeKi.6.  inor.     And  when  the  Eternal  Father  shall  ao;aia 

bring  in  the  First-born  into  the  world,  as  he  will 
in  the  Second  Advent,  then  will  he  say,  Let  all  the 
angels  of  God  worship  him. 

Edward  Perro-  AH  hail  the  power  of  Jesus*  name  I 


net. 


Let  angels  prostrate  fall ; 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem, 
And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 


i"  It  was  before  Deity,  embodied  in  a  human  form,  walking 
among  men,  partaking  of  their  infirmities,  leaning  on  their 
bosoms,  weeping  over  their  graves,  slumbering  in  the  manger, 
bleeding  on  the  cross,  that  the  prejudices  of  the  Synagogue, 
and  the  doubts  of  the  Academy,  and  the  pride  of  the  Portico, 
and  the  fasces  of  the  Lictor,  and  the  swords  of  thirty  legions, 
were  humbled  in  the  dust." — Lord  Macaulay's  "Essay  on 
Milton." 


THE  SECOND   COMMANDMENT.  79 

Oh,  that  with  yonder  sacred  throng, 

We  at  his  feet  may  fall ! 
We'll  join  the  everlasting  song, 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all. 

Almighty  God,  give  us  grace  that  we  may  cast  away  the  Collect, 
works  of  darkness,  and  put  upon  us  the  armour  of  light,  now 
in  the  time  of  this  mortal  life,  in  which  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ 
came  to  visit  us  in  great  humility;  that  in  the  last  day,  when 
he  shall  come  again  in  his  glorious  Majesty  to  judge  both  the 
quick  and  dead,  we  may  rise  to  the  life  immortal,  through  him 
who  liveth  and  reigneth  with  thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  now 
and  ever.    Amen, 


IV. 

THE  THIRD  COMMANDMEN-T. 

Thou  Shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in 
vain;  for  Jehovah  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that 
taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

Exodus  XX,  7. 


IV. 

THE  THIRD  COMMANDMENT. 

The  name  of  God  is  God  himself  as  made  Meanin;?  of 
known  to  man ;  and  this  in  whatever  way,  whether  *'  n  am  e  of 
in  nature,  in  Scripture,  in  providence,  or  in  divine  God." 
suggestion.  For  Deity  Absokite — that  is,  Deity 
existing  in  and  by  himself,  apart  from  any  relation 
to  aught  that  is  finite — is  a  God  unknown  and  un- 
knowable :  as  such,  he  may  be  said  to  have  no 
name;  as  such,  he  is  and  eternally  must  be  the 
nameless  One.  But  Deity  coming  into  relation  to 
his  finite  creatures,  manifesting  himself  in  space 
and  time,  sweeping  within  the  range  of  human 
vision  and  cognition,  takes  on  as  it  were  a  name. 
The  name  of  God,  in  distinction  from  God  him- 
self, is  man's  conception  of  God.  Any  specific 
name  of  God  is  man's  conception  of  a  specific 
attribute,  quality,  or  act  of  God.  For  example : 
The  Evangelical  Prophet,  conceiving  the  promised 
Deliverer  as  one  who  would  be  mysterious  in  per- 
son, infinite  in  wisdom,  divine  in  nature,  eternal  in 
personality,  pacific  in  character  and  method,  is  im- 
pelled by  the  Spirit  to  announce  :  ^^  His  name  shall  isa.  ix,  e. 
be  called  Wonderful,  Counsellor,  Mighty  God, 
Everlasting  Father,  Prince  of  Peace.''  In  like 
manner  we,  conceiving  God  as  having  certain 
properties,  characters,  methods,  and  so  forth,  call 
him  Creator,  Preserver,  Benefactor,  King,  Judge, 

83 


84  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  Eternal,  the  Almighty,  the  All-seeing,  the 
Heavenly  Father,  Immanuel,  Holy  Spirit,  and  the 
like.  On  the  other  hand,  when  we  give  the 
Supreme  Being  no  specific  title,  the  general 
phrase  "  Name  of  God "  stands  as  a  compendium 
of  our  conceptions  of  God,  a  human  epitome  of 
Deity.  Thus  the  Name  of  God  is  God  himself  as 
he  appears  to  man.  In  other  words :  God^s  name 
is  a  definition  as  well  as  an  appellation,  a  statement 
as  well  as  a  vocable.^ 

The  phrase,  then, "  Name  of  God,"  is  profoundly 
pregnant.  As  such,  it  is  immensely  comprehensive, 
meaning  immeasurably  more  than  the  mere  titles 
and  appellations  by  which  Deity  is  distinguished 
from  all  other  beings ;  it  also  means  all  that  may  be 

1 "  The  difficulty  of  the  translator  (of  the  Bible)usually  begins 
with  the  name  of  God.  To  us  English  people  this  is  so  much 
a  thing  of  the  past  that  we  cannot  understand  it ;  but  as  a 
matter  of  fact  it  has  caused  perplexity,  if  not  dissension,  in  the 
case  of  many  new  translations.  Thus,  to  take  a  single  instance, 
in  China  the  missionaries  of  the  various  Christian  bodies  are 
not  to  this  day  agreed  as  to  the  right  word  to  be  adopted,  and 
consequently  they  will  not  all  consent  to  use  the  same  version 
of  the  Bible.  Some  approve  of  the  name  Tien-Chu,  a  title  which 
signifies  '  the  Lord  of  heaven,'  which  has  been  adopted  for 
three  centuries  by  the  Roman  Catholics  ;  some  adopt  Shang-Ti, 
the  Confucian  name  for  '  the  supreme  ruler  '  ;  others  are  in 
favor  of  Shin,  which  is  generally  supposed  to  mean  'spirit.' 
The  controversy  between  the  upholders  of  these  various  opin- 
ions has  been  very  warm  and  earnest,  and  has  called  forth 
several  deeply  interesting  essays.  The  arguments  have  usually 
gathered  round  one  question — Ought  we  to  choose  a  generic 
name  for  God — i.  e.,  a  name  which  represents  to  the  heathen 
mind  a  class  of  beings,  or  ought  we  to  choose  what  may  be 
called  a  proper  name,  even  though  that  name  may  present  a 
most  unworthy  notion  of  the  Deity  ? "— "  Synonyms  of  the  Old 
Testament,"  by  the  Rev.  Robert  Baker  Girdlestone,  m.  a. 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  85 

properly  affirmed  or  conceived  of  Deity.  Who  of 
us  was  not  taught  in  childhood  to  revere  the  name 
of  Washington  ?  Yet  who  of  us  does  not  know 
that  it  was  not  the  mere  word  "  Washington  ^' 
which  we  were  taught  to  revere  ?  What  we  were 
taught  to  revere  was  that  of  which  the  word 
"  Washington "  is  the  mere  symbol  and  shrine — 
namely,  his  character,  his  wisdom,  his  integrity,  his 
patriotism,  his  heroism  :  that  which  Washington 
was,  and  that  which  Washington  did.  In  like 
manner,  God's  name  not  only  signifies  all  his  vari- 
ous titles — that  were  little  to  say  :  it  also  signifies 
his  nature,  his  attributes,  his  character,  his  author- 
ity, his  purposes,  his  methods,  his  providences,  his 
words,  his  institutions,  his  truths,  his  kingdom  ;  in 
short,  all  that  God  is,  all  that  God  says,  all  that 
God  does,  all  that  God  bids.  Thus  comprehensive 
is  the  phrase  "  Name  of  God.'' 

Hence  the  remarkable  frequency  with  which  the  Scriptural 
phrase  occurs  in  Scripture.     For  example  :  ^^  Thou      of  ^^he°^^ 
shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  ExodHl^'i. 
vain."     "  O  Jehovah,  our  Lord,  how  ex'cellent  is  ps.  viu,  i. 
thy  name  in  all  the  earth."     "  The  name  of  the  ps.  xx,  i. 
God  of  Jacob  set  thee  on  high."     "  In  the  name  of   Ps.  xx,  5. 
our  God  we  will  set  up  our  banners."     "  Sing  unto  ps.  ixviii,  4. 
God,  sing  praises  to  his  name  ;  his  name  is  Jah." 
"  Holy  and  reverend  is  his  name."     "  The  name  Ps.  cxi,  9. 
of  Jehovah  is  a  strong  tower."     "A  book  of  re-  u^I's^Iq!' 
membrance  was  written  before  him,  for  them  that 
feared  Jehovah,  and  that  thought  upon  his  name." 
"  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  Matt,  vi,  9. 
name."     "  Whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little  child  Matt,  xviii,  5. 
8 


86 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Matt,  xviii,  20. 
Matt,  xxviii,  19. 


John  xii,28. 
John  xvii,  6. 


John  XX,  31. 
Acts  iv,  12. 


Acts  V,  41. 


Acts  ix,  15,  16. 


Phil,  ii,  9,  10. 


Col.  iii,  17. 
Eev.  iii,  12. 


Eev.  xiv,  1. 
Key.  xix,  12, 13 
Rev.  xix,  16 


The   Third 

Command- 
ment. 
Exod.  XX,  7. 


in  my  name  receiveth  me."  "  Where  two  or  three 
are  gathered  together  in  my  name,  there  am  I  in 
the  midst  of  them."  "Baptizing  them  into  the 
name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy 
Spirit."  "  Father,  glorify  thy  name."  "  I  mani- 
fested thy  name  unto  the  men  whom  thou  gavest 
me  out  of  the  world."  "  That  believing  ye  may 
have  life  in  his  name."  "Neither  is  there  any 
other  name  under  heaven,  that  is  given  among 
men,  wherein  we  must  be  saved."  "  Rejoicing  that 
they  were  counted  worthy  to  suffer  dishonour  for  the 
Name."  "  He  is  a  chosen  vessel  unto  me,  to  bear 
my  name  before  the  Gentiles  and  kings,  and  the 
children  of  Israel ;  for  I  will  shew  him  hoAV  many 
things  he  must  suffer  for  my  name's  sake."  "  Gave 
unto  him  the  name  which  is  above  every  name ; 
that  in  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee  should  bow." 
"  Whatsoever  ye  do,  in  word  or  in  deed,  do  all  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord  Jesus."  "He  that  over- 
cometh,  I  will  write  upon  him  the  name  of  my 
God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  my  God,  and 
mine  own  new  name."  "  Having  his  name,  and  the 
name  of  his  Father,  written  on  their  foreheads." 
"  He  hath  a  name  written,  which  no  one  knoweth 
but  he  himself;  and  his  name  is  called  The  Word 
of  God."  "  He  hath  on  his  garment  and  on  his 
thigh  a  name  written.  King  of  Kings,  and  Lord 

OF  LOKDS." 

And  now  we  are  ready  for  the  Tiiird  Command- 
ment :  "  Thou  shall  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah 
thy  God  in  vain;  for  Jehovah  will  not  hold  him 
guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain.'' 


THE   THIRD    COMMANDMENT.  87 

Our  coiumandment  naturally  cleaves  into  two 
parts — a  prohibition,  and  a  warning: 

I.  And,   first,    the   divine    prohibition:  ^' Thou  The  Divine 
shall  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain  J'     Prohibition. 

The  Hebrew  word  for  *'  in  vain  ^'  is  ambiguous : 
it  may  either  mean  falsely,  insincerely,  deceitfully, 
or  it  may  mean  emptily,  frivolouslv,  profanely. 
Accordingly,  we  shall  not  go  astray  if  we  study 
this  prohibition  in  the  light  of  both  these  meanings. 

1.  And,  first,  we  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  our  Forbids  Per- 
God  in  vain  when  we  use  it  falsely.^  pledging  his  ^^^^' 
name  and  character  to  a  lie.  A  lie  is  bad  enousrh : 
for  it  is  a  sin  against  society,  sapping  confidence  in 
its  very  foundations.  For  language  is  the  means  of 
human  intercommunication,  the  bridge  of  society, 
the  circulating  medium  of  mankind.  And  so  it 
comes  to  pass  that  language  is  really  the  covenant 
of  a  people.  Each  language  is,  so  to  speak,  the 
sacramental  bond  of  the  nation  speaking  it.  Lan- 
guage itself  is  the  compact  of  society.^     Accord- 

^"  To  take  God's  name  in  vain  is  generally  supposed  to  mean 
to  use  it  lightly  or  irreverently ;  but  however  appropriately 
that  offense  may  be  regarded  as  implicitly  forbidden  by  the 
terms  of  the  Third  Commandment,  I  apprehend  it  is  certainly 
not  its  immediate  or  primary  meaning.  What  the  language  of 
the  Third  Commandment  really  means  is,  Thou  shalt  not 
make  use  of  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  attestation  of 

what  is  false Assuredly  this  commandment  has   a 

solemn  message  for  all  those  who  address  their  brethren  in  the 
name  of  God,  lest  while  they  profess  the  words  of  God  they 
utter  also  their  own." — Stanley  Leathes,  Prebendary  of  St. 
Paul's,  Professor  of  Hebrew,  King's  College,  London. 

2  No  apothegm  of  poor  Colton  is  wiser  than  this  :  "Words 
indeed  are  but  the  signs  and  counters  of  knowledge,  and  their 
currency  should  be  strictly  regulated  by  the  capital  which 
they  represent." — "Lacon,"  Preface. 


88  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Eph.iT,25.  Jug^J,  the  Apostle  Paul  says:  "Puttiug  away 
falsehood,  speak  ye  truth  each  oue  with  his 
neighbor/'  Why?  ^•'Because/'  he  adds,  "we  are 
members  oue  of  another/'  Membership  in  human 
society  means  a  common,  reciprocal,  interacting 
life;  so  that  falsehood  on  the  part  of  one  member 
is  both  murderous  and  suicidal.  Even  Achilles, 
in  that  far-off  age  when  Agamemnon  sent  Ulysses 
and  Ajax  to  seek  a  reconciliation,  replied: 

Pope's  "Iliad,"  Who  dares  think  one  thing,  and  another  tell, 

IX,  412, 413.  j^y  heart  detests  him  as  the  gates  of  hell. 

But  abominable  as  a  lie  is,  perjury  is  still  more 

abominable;    for  it  adds  sacrilege  to  mendacity, 

blasphemy  to  falsehood.     Perjury  is  the  abyss,  the 

very  nadir  of  moral  crime. 

Forbids  Hy-       2.  Again,  we  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  our  God 

*  ^^"        in  vain  when  we  use  it  insincerely  or  hypocritically. 

How  graphic  the  laureate's   portrayal   of   the 

hypocrite: 

Tennyson's  With  all  his  conscience,  and  one  eye  askew, 

" Seu  Dreams."  go  false,  he  partly  took  himself  for  true  ; 

Whose  pious  talk,  when  most  his  heart  was  dry. 
Made  wet  the  crafty  crowsfoot  round  his  eye  ; 
Who,  never  naming  God  except  for  gain, 
So  never  took  that  useful  name  in  vain  ; 
Made  him  his  catspaw,  and  the  Cross  his  tool, 
And  Christ  the  bait  to  trap  his  dupe  and  fool ; 
Nor  deeds  of  gift,  but  gifts  of  grace  he  forged. 
And,  snakelike,  slimed  his  victim  ere  he  gorged  ; 
And  oft  at  Bible  meetings,  o'er  the  rest 
Arising,  did  his  holy,  oily  best. 
Dropping  the  too-rough  h  in  hell  and  heaven, 
To  spread  the  word  by  which  himself  had  thriven. 

If  there  was  one  sin  which  more  than  another 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  89 

excited  the  Divine  Man's  utmost  ire,  it  was  the  sin 
of  religious  insincerity,  hypocritically  honoring  Markvii,6. 
God  with  the  lips,  while  the  heart  is  far  from  him. 
No  wrath  of  his  was  so  direful  as  his  eightfold 
woe  against  the  Pharisees  and  hypocrites,  who  Matt,  xxiu  13- 
devoured  widows'  houses,  even  w^hile  for  a  pre- 
tense they  made  long  prayers;  who  tithed  mint, 
and  anise,  and  cummin,  but  left  undone  the 
weightier  matters  of  the  law — justice,  mercy,  and 
fidelity;  who  strained  out  gnats  of  peccadillos,  but 
gulped  down  camels  of  flagranoy ;  who  cleansed 
the  outside  of  the  cup  and  platter  of  behavior,  but 
were  within  full  from  extortion  and  excess ;  who 
w-ere  like  unto  whited  sepulchres,  outwardly 
appearing  beautiful,  but  inwardly  being  full  of 
dead  men's  bones  and  all  uncleanness ;  who  sancti- 
moniously built  the  sepulchres  of  the  prophets  and 
garnished  the  tombs  of  the  righteous,  wdiile  at  the 
same  time  they  were  scourging  the  moral  success- 
ors of  those  ancient  worthies,  persecuting  them  from 
city  to  city,  and  crucifying  them.  Oh,  young  friend, 
beware  of  the  sacrilege  of  insincere  worship  ! 

God  is  a  spirit,  just  and  wise  ;  Isaac  Watts. 

He  sees  our  inmost  mind  ; 
Tn  vain  to  heaven  we  raise  our  cries, 

And  leave  our  hearts  behind. 
Nothing  but  truth  before  his  throne 

With  honor  can  appear  ; 
The  painted  hypocrites  are  known 

Whatever  the  guise  they  wear. 

Their  lifted  eyes  salute  the  skies, 

Their  bending  knees  the  ground; 
But  God  abhors  the  sacrifice 

Where  not  the  heart  is  found. 


90  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Lord,  search  my  thoughts,  and  try  my  ways, 

And  make  my  soul  sincere  ; 
Then  shall  I  stand  before  thy  face, 

And  find  acceptance  there. 

Forbids  Pro-       3  Again  :   We  take  the  uame  of  Jehovah  our 

^^^  ^*  God  in  vain  when  we  use  it  lightly,  on  trivial 

occasions. 

Christ's  Doc-       The  best  possible  comment  here  is  the  Great 

Oaths!     ^     Teacher's  own  saying  in   his  Instruction  on  the 

Mount : 

Matt.  V,  3S-37.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time.  Thou 

shalt  not  forswear  thyself,  but  shalt  perform  unto  the  Lord 
thine  oaths  :  but  I  say  unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all ;  neither  by 
the  heaven,  for  it  is  the  throne  of  God  ;  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is 
the  footstool  of  his  feet ;  nor  by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the  city  of 
the  great  King.  Neither  shalt  thou  swear  by  thy  head,  for 
thou  canst  not  make  one  hair  white  or  black.  But  let  your 
speech  be.  Yea,  yea  ;  Nay,  nay  :  and  whatsoever  is  more  than 
these  is  of  the  evil  one. 

Rabbinic  Mis- /  In  pondering  these  words,  glance  first  at  the  rab- 
t?on^^of  /  binic  interpretation  of  the  law  of  oaths  :  "  Ye 
Oaths.  '  ]^2ive  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time, 
Thou  shalt  not  forswear  thyself,  but  shalt  perform 
unto  the  Lord  thine  oaths."  This  saying  seems  to 
blend  reminiscences  of  several  Mosaic  statutes :  for 
example,  our  commandment :  "  Thou  shalt  not 
take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God   in   vain  ;" 

i^v.xix,  i2.|  ^^  Ye  shall  not  swear  by  my  name  falsely,  so  that 
I      thou    profane    the    name   of    thy    God :    I    am 

Num. XXX, 2.  Jehovah.'^  "When  a  man  voweth  a  vow  unto 
Jehovah,  or  sweareth  an  oath  to  bind  his  soul  with 
a  bond,  he  shall  not  break  his  word ;  he  shall  do 
according  to  all  that  proceedeth  out  of  his  mouth.'' 

Deut.  xxiii,  21.  "  Wh^H  thou  slialt  VOW  a  VOW  unto  Jehovah  thy 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  91 

God,  thou  shalt  not  be  slack  to  pay  it :  for 
Jehovah  thy  God  will  surely  require  it  of  thee; 
and  it  would  be  sin  in  thee/^  Now  the  scribes  in 
interpreting  these  Mosaic  statutes  had  resorted  to 
all  sorts  of  sophistry.  For  example :  they  taught 
that,  so  long  as  men  did  not  use  the  express  name 
of  God  in  their  oaths,  these  oaths  were  not  relig- 
iously binding.  Thus  Mairaonides,  the  famous 
rabbi  and  systematizer  of  Jewish  traditions,  says  : 

If  any  one  swears  by  heaven,  by  earth,  by  the  sun,  etc.,  Maimonides. 
although  it  is  the  intention  of  him  who  swears  in  these  words 
to  swear  by  him  who  created  these  things,  yet  this  is  not  an 
oath ;  or,  if  one  swears  by  one  of  the  prophets  or  by  one  of 
the  books  of  Scripture,  although  it  is  the  purpose  of  the 
swearer  to  swear  by  him  who  sent  that  prophet  or  who  gave 
that  book,  nevertheless  this  is  not  an  oath. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  under  such  teachings 
by  the  authorized  expounders  of  the  law  the  Jew- 
ish people  should  have  become  terribly  addicted  to 
profanity.  Swearing  became  to  them  almost  as 
natural  as  breathing.  Accordingly,  I  do  not  won- 
der that,  when  Peter,  in  a  moment  of  weakness  Mark  xiv,  66-71. 
and  fright,  denied  his  Master,  he  fell  back  into 
his  old  Jewish  habits,  and  began  to  curse  and 
swear,  saying,  "  I  know  not  this  man  of  whom  ye 
speak."  But  the  point  in  the  rabbinic  misinterpre- 
tation of  Moses  w^as  this :  Oaths  are  allow^able,  if 
the  name  of  God  be  not  expressly  mentioned. 

And  now  let  us  see  how  the  Heavenly  Teacher  Christ's inter- 
interprets  the  law  of  oaths  :  Oaths. 

But  I  say  unto  you,  Swear  not  at  all ;  neither  by  the  heaven, 
for  it  is  the  throne  of  God  ;  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is  the  foot- 
stool of  his  feet ;  nor  by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the  city  of  the 


92  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

great  King.  Neither  shalt  thou  swear  by  thy  head,  for  thou 
canst  not  make  one  hair  white  or  black.  But  let  your  speech 
be,  Yea,  yea ;  Nay,  nay  ;  and  whatsoever  is  more  than  these  is 
of  the  evil  one. 

Question  o  f  And  here  an  important  question  arises :  Does 
O^ths.^^^  our  Lord  mean  to  forbid  all  oaths  of  every  kind? 
For  example,  Does  he  mean  to  forbid  judicial 
oaths  ?  The  brethren  of  some  of  our  communions 
— for  instance,  Waldenses,  Anabaptists,  Mennonites, 
Moravians,  Quakers — answer.  Yes.  It  is  a  grave 
question  for  one  who  professes  to  be  a  Christian, 
taking  Jesus  for  his  King,  to  answer.  Let  us,  then, 
examine  it  thoughtfully. 

Observe,  then,  precisely  the  abuse  which  the 
Divine  Man  is  here  correcting.  The  scribes,  as  we 
have  seen,  taught  that  no  oath  was  absolutely  bind- 
ing in  which  the  name  of  the  Supreme  Being  did 
not  directly  occur.  So  long  as  they  abstained 
from  swearing  by  any  of  the  names  of  Deity,  they 
fancied  that  all  other  oaths  were  permissible,  and 
might  be  taken  with  impunity.  This  is  the  abuse 
— this  surreptitious  perjury,  this  Jesuitical  pro- 
fanity— ^which  the  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  em- 
phatically forbids.  Accordingly,  he  proceeds  to 
show  that  swearing-  by  any  created  thing,  such  as 
heaven,  earth,  Jerusalem,  one's  own  head,  is  really 
swearing  by  Deity  himself;  and  this  because  he  is 
the  Creator,  and  therefore  every  created  thing  is 
in  a  certain  sense  his  representative.  What  he 
condemns,  then,  is  not  the  solemn  religious  or  judi- 
cial oath,  but  the  practice  of  taking  oaths  in  com- 
mon conversation,  and  especially  of  swearing  by 
secular  objects.     Moreover,  the  apostles  took  what 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  93 

virtually  were  oaths.     Thus  Paul,  and  on  more 

than  one  occasion.    For  example  :  "  God  is  my  wit-  Rom.  i,  9. 

ness "  ;   "I  say  the  truth  in  Christ,  I  lie  not,  my  Rom. ix.  1. 

conscience  bearing  witness  with  me  in  the  Holy 

Spirit ";  "  I  call  God  for  a  witness  upon  my  soul  '^;  2  cor.  i,  23. 

"Behold,  before  God,  I  lie  not."     In  like  manner  Gai.  1,20. 

the  angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  who  stood  upon  sea  Rev.  x,  5, 6. 

and  upon  land,  and,  lifting  up  his  right  hand  to 

heaven,  sware  by  him  who  liveth  for  ever  and  ever 

that  there  should  be  delay  no  longer.     So  Jesus 

Christ  himself  before  Caiaphas :   The  high  priest  Matt,  xxvi,  63, 

said  unto  him,  "  I  adjure  thee  by  the  living  God, 

that  thou  tell  us  whether  thou  be  the  Christ,  the  )^ 

Son  of  God."     Jesus  saith  unto  him,  "  Thou  hast 

said."     In  like  manner  even  infinite  God  himself: 

When  God  made  promise  to  Abraham,  since  he  could  swear  Heb.  vi,  13,I8. 
by  none  greater,  he  sware  by  himself,  saying,  Surely  blessing  Gen.  xxii  16  17. 
I  will  bless  thee,  and  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thee.  For 
men  swear  by  the  greater  :  and  in  every  dispute  of  theirs  the 
oath  is  final  for  confirmation.  Wherein  God,  being  minded  to 
shew  more  abundantly  unto  the  heirs  of  the  promise  the  im- 
mutability of  his  counsel,  interposed  with  an  oath  ;  that  by 
two  immutable  things,  in  which  it  is  impossible  for  God  to  lie, 
we  may  have  a  strong  encouragement,  who  have  fled  for  refuge 
to  lay  hold  of  the  hope  set  before  us. 

But  althouojh  the  solemn  oath  raav  thus  seem 
permissible,  one  thing  is  very  certain :  it  is  admin- 
istered far  too  often  and  far  too  lightly.  It  seems 
almost  impossible  to  do  any  kind  of  court  business 
without  interposing  an  oath  between  each  step  of 
tlie  operation.  Did  you  ever  undertake  to  get  a 
package  from  the  custom  house?  Judges,  jurors, 
witnesses,  sheriffs,  tipstaffs,  magistrates,  assessors, 


94  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

collectoi's,  treasurers,  soldiers,  midshipmen,  opera- 
tors in  almost  every  kind  of  business  transaction, 
are  put  to  oath  on  almost  every  conceivable  occa- 
sion : 

Cowper's    "  Ex-  Sworn  on  every  slight  pretence, 

Till  perjuries  are  common  as  bad  pence, 
While  thousands,  careless  of  the  damning  sin. 
Kiss  the  book's  outside,  who  ne'er  look'd  within. 

When  I  remember  the  tremendous  sweep  and 
import  of  an  oath — the  extreme  frequency  with 
which  it  is  administered,  and  in  connection  with 
the  most  trival  occasions,  the  flippant,  almost 
merry  volubility  with  which  it  is  administered,  the 
perfect  nonchalance  with  which  the  most  profane 
men  take  it — I  shudder  at  the  blasphemy  wiiich  is 
practically  perpetrated  under  forms  of  law.  You 
tell  me,  indeed,  that  oaths  are  necessary  in  order 
to  ensure  veracious  testimony.  What  a  mournful 
comment  on  the  Fall,  or  rather  what  a  mournful 
proof  of  it !  Here  is  a  land  of  Bibles  and  Sabbaths 
and  churches.  And  yet  so  little  is  the  confidence 
vou  have  in  your  fellowmen  that  you  will  not 
submit  the  most  insignificant  case,  involving  the 
most  trifling  pecuniary  amount,  to  a  jury,  without 
subjecting  each  and  every  witness  to  an  oath 
which,  if  he  understands  ,what  he  is  saying,  he 
solemnly  accepts  as  a  warning  that  the  all-seeing 
God  will  punish  him  should  he  testify  falsely. 
Friends,  there  is  something  wrong  here.  The  oath 
is  too  common  a  thing  in  our  courts  and  places  of 
business.  If  it  is  to  be  administered  at  all,  let  it 
be  administered  only  on  gravest  occasions  and  in 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  95 

the  most  solemn  manner.  As  matters  stand,  how 
often  our  oaths  really  become  curses ! 

Reviewing  this  matter  of  judicial  oatiis  as  a 
whole,  I  coufess  to  a  deep  sympathy  with  tlie  view 
maintained  by  our  excellent  friends,  the  Quakers. 
Their  interpretation  of  our  Lord's  words  is  cer- 
tainly safer,  and  has  the  immense  advantage  of 
being  literal  and  exact.  I  thank  God  that  I  am 
permitted  to  live  under  a  Government  which  ac- 
cepts my  affirmation  as  the  equivalent  of  a  formal 
oath.  So  much  for  the  question  touching  judicial 
oaths. 

What,  then,  does  the  Divine  Man,  in  his  doctrine 
of  oaths,  really  forbid  ? 

First:  He  directlv  forbids  all  profanitv,  all  as-  Christ  For- 

1  '   1  .  ^  ,\'  bids  Pro- 

severations  and  avouchments  and  protestations  on  fanity. 
slight  occasions — everything  beyond  a  simple 
affirmation  or  a  simple  denial.  And  here,  also,  he 
fulfills  the  law  by  fulfilling  the  spirit  in  the  letter. 
Moses  forbade  swearing  by  any  of  the  names  of 
God  ;  Jesus  forbids  all  light  adjurations  of  any 
kind,  whether  by  heaven  or  by  earth,  by  Jerusalem 
or  by  one's  head.  Alas,  how  many  of  us,  even 
professing  Chrislians,  are  morally  guilty  here! 
How  full  our  speech  is  of  vehement  asseverations, 
strong  ejaculations,  iterated  protestations,  meaning- 
less expletives  (such  as  "heavens,''  "goodness  gra- 
cious," O  my,"  etc.);  which  seem  to  be  meaning- 
less, but  which  really  mean  profanity  !  Other  sins, 
such  as  lying  and  stealing,  may  sometimes  seem  to 
bring  temporary  advantage.  But  this  sin  of  swear- 
ing is  perfectly  useless.     Moreover,  it  is  an  essen- 


96  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

tially  vulgar  sin,  a  characteristic  habit  of  the 
criminal,  the  libertine,  the  sot,  the  outcast.  "A 
gentleman,"  says  that  model  of  courtesy  so  often 
quoted  in  circles  where  etiquette  is  the  law  of  life, 
Lord  Chesterfield,  "  never  swears."  Once  more : 
profanity  is  a  silly,  idiotic  sin.  The  drunken  man 
swears ;  and  the  drunker  he  is,  the  profuser  are 
his  oaths,  at  least  so  long  as  he  is  able  to  articulate 
at  all.  One  of  the  most  painful  things  in  connec- 
tion with  our  asylums  for  idiots  and  imbecile 
children  is  the  easy  capability  with  which  they 
swear.  The  lower  the  mental  grade,  the  easier  it 
is  to  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  our  God  in  vain. 
How  incisive  the  genius* stroke  of  Shakespeare, 
when  he  represents  Caliban — the  savage,  deformed, 
half-witted  slave  of  Prospero — as  saying: 

*"^*^„®* T^™?!'!.^!'  ^^^  taught  me  language  ;  and  my  profit  on't 

Is,  I  know  how  to  curse  :  The  red  plague  rid  you, 
For  learning  me  your  language  I 


Act  1,  Scene  2. 


Forbids  all  Again:  The  Divine  Man  forbids,  at  least  by 
aci  y.  j,^^pij(,j^^JQj-,^  jjU  mendacity;  for  mendacity  is  a 
most  fruitful  source  of  profanity.  "Why  is  it  that 
we  demand  that  every  one  who  gives  testimony  be 
put  on  his  oath?  It  is  because  we  instinctively 
distrust  one  another.  Why  is  it  that  so  many  of 
us.  in  common  conversation,  asseverate  so  strongly 
— using  such  phrases  as,  "  I  do  declare,"  "  upon 
my  word."  "  upon  my  soul,"  "  upon  my  honor," 
and  the  like — as  though  the  simple  yea  or  nay 
were  not  enough  ?  It  is  because  we  have  a  sense 
more  or  less  distinct  of  personal   untruthfulness, 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  97 

and  a  fear  that  others  will  not  believe  us.  Verily, 
the  lie  and  the  oath  are  twins ;  or,  rather,  the  lie  is 
mother  and  the  oath  is  daughter.  And  so  it  comes 
to  pass  that  trutli fulness  is  a  test  of  character,  per- 
sonal and  national.     Listen  to  the  King  of  Words : 

Out  of  the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh.  Matt,  jdi,  3i-37. 
The  good  man,  out  of  his  good  treasure,  bringeth  forth  good 
things;  and  the  evil  man,  out  of  his  evil  treasure,  bringeth 
forth  evil  things.  And  I  say  unto  you,  that  every  idle  word 
that  men  shall  speak,  they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 
day  of  judgment.  For  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified, 
and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned. 

And  no  wonder.  For,  as  I  have  hinted.  God 
has  bestowed  on  man  the  gift  of  language,  to  serve 
as  the  means  of  human  communication.  It  is 
through  words  that  men  under.staud  one  another, 
and  co-operate  in  carrying  on  and  building  up 
society.  Words  are  the  very  ligaments  of  society 
itself.  Hence,  if  words  are  to  fulfill  their  true 
mission,  they  must  be  trustworthy.  Recall  St. 
Paul's  forcible  saying:  "Putting  away  falsehood,  Eph.iv,25. 
speak  ye  the  truth  each  one  with  his  neighbour ;  jor 
we  are  members  one  of  another."  Confidence  iu 
one  another  is  one  of  the  basal  stones  of  society. 
And  nothing  is  more  beautiful  than  a  pellucid, 
transparent  character.  No  loftier  tribute  can  be 
paid  to  any  man  than  to  say  of  him,  as,  thank  God, 
we  are  so  often  permitted  to  say  of  truthful  men, 
*•  His  word  is  as  good  as  his  bond."  Cultivate 
then,  O  friend,  the  spirit  of  truthfulness.  Spirit, 
I  say :  for  a  man  may  be  true  to  the  letter  of  a 
statement,  and  vet  be  false  to  its  spirit,  using  his 
9 


98  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

very  veracity  as  a  plea  for  his  duplicity,  even  as 
did  Sir  Lancelot  of  the  Lake: 

Tennyson's  His  honor  rooted  in  dishonor  stood, 

^  *^^'  And  faith  unfaithful  kept  him  falsely  true. 

Avoid,  then,  all  dissimulation,  and  possibility  of 
moral  equivoque. 
Hamlet,"   Act  This  above  all :  to  thine  own  self  be  true, 


1,  Scene  3. 


And  it  must  follow,  as  the  night  the  day, 
Thou  canst  not  then  be  false  to  any  man. 


John  ii,  24, 25.  Would  God  that  he  who  knew  all  men,  and 
needed  not  that  any  one  should  testify  to  him  con- 
cerning man — for  he  himself  knew  what .  was  in 
man — could  point  to  each  of  us  and  exclaim,  as  he 

John  1,47  did  of  Nathauael,  *'  Behold,  an  Israelite  indeed,  in 

whom  is  no  guile ! "  Whatever  disaster  may  be- 
fall our  beloved  America,  God  spare  her  the  guilt 
and  degradation  of  untruthfulness !  Whatsoever 
is  more  than  a  simple  Yea,  yea,  or  Nay,  nay, 
Cometh  of  evil,  even  the  Evil  One.  Were  there 
no  kingdom  of  darkness  and  no  dark  king  thereof, 
there  would  be  no  oath   or   suggestion  of  oath. 

jaineaT,i2,  Above  all  things,  then,  my  brothers,  swear  not, 
neither  by  the  heaven,  nor  by  the  earth,  nor  by 
any  other  oath  :  but  let  your  yea  be  yea,  and  your 
nay,  nay;  that  ye  fall  not  under  judgment.  Thank 
God,  the  coming  ideal  state  will  need  no  oaths. 
The  Divine  Teacher's  doctrine  of  oaths,  like  all 
his  other  teachings,  reaches  and  overlaps  Ultima 
Thule,  In  that  coming  paradise  of  perfected 
society  into  which  the  Man  Divine  is  uplifting 
humanity,  it  will  be  simply,  Yes,  yes ;  No,  no. 
And  this  because  all  human  speech,  like  the  speech 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  99 

of  him  who  is  the  very  Word  of  God,  even  Truth 
itself,  will  be  simply.  Amen,  amen;  Verily, 
verily.     God  hasten  the  day  ! 

And  now  note  the  reason  which  the  Great  Christ's  Rea- 
Teacher  assigns  for  forbidding  all  oaths  and  as-  Prohibi- 
severations ;  it  is  because  all  things,  not  less  than  ^^^' 
the  Creator  himself,  are  sacred :  "  Swear  not  at 
all ;  neither  by  the  heaven,  for  it  is  the  throne  of 
God ;  nor  by  the  earth,  for  it  is  the  footstool  of 
his  feet ;  nor  by  Jerusalem,  for  it  is  the  city  of  the 
great  King.  Neither  sbalt  thou  swear  by  thy 
head,  for  thou  canst  not  make  one  hair  white  or 
black."  It  is  the  same  great  truth  which  our 
Master  subsequently  re-announced  to  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees  themselves.  Those  blind  guides  of 
the  people  were  wont,  in  their  miserable  casuistry, 
to  distinguish  between  oaths,  declaring  that  who- 
ever swore  by  the  temple  or  by  the  altar,  it  was 
nothing :  but  whoever  swore  by  the  gold  of  the 
temple,  or  by  the  gift  upon  the  altar,  he  was 
bound.  "  Ye  fools  and  blind,"  thunders  the  Car-  Matt,  xxiu,  it- 
penter  Teacher,  "  whether  is  greater,  the  gold,  or 
the  temple  that  hath  sanctified  the  gold?  the  gift, 
or  the  altar  that  sanctifieth  the  gift  ?  He  there- 
fore that  sweareth  by  the  altar,  sweareth  by  it, 
and  by  all  things  thereon.  And  he  that  sweareth 
by  the  temple,  sweareth  by  it,  and  by  him  that 
dwelleth  therein.  And  he  that  sweareth  by  the 
heaven,  sweareth  by  the  throne  of  God,  and  by 
him  that  sitteth  thereon."  Aye,  friends,  all  things 
from  atom  to  star  are  sacred ;  and  this  because  all 
things  from  atom  to  star  are  God's,  gleaming,  if 


22. 


100  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

\ 

our  true  eyes  were  open,  with  God's  own  super- 
scription and  seal.  Oh,  could  we  always  keep  this 
in  mind — could  we  always  remember  that  we  are 
evermore  in  solemn  court-room,  the  Almio;hty, 
All-seeing  God  our  everlasting  bench  and  jury — 

Gen.xxi,3i.       wc  siiould  Deed   no  Beer-sheba,  or  Well   of  the 

Gen.  xTi,  13, 14.  Oath  ;  because  all  our  life  would  be  spent  by  Beer- 
lahai-roi,  or,  Well  of  the  living  One  w4io  seeth  me! 

The  Divine       II.  And  now  we  pass  from  tlie  divine  prohibi- 
Wariiing.      ^-^^^  ^^  ^^^  divine  warning ;  "  For  Jehovah  will  not 
hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vainJ^ 

Indeed,  Jehovah  could  not :  for  this  sin,  whether 
in  the  form  of  perjury,  of  insincerity,  or  of  pro- 
fanity, is  a  sin  directly  against  Jehovah  himself; 
the  name  of  God  being,  as  we  have  seen,  the  very 
epitome  and  symbolic  essence  of  Deity.  It  is  to 
insult  and  defy  and  blaspheme  the  Almighty  in 
the  citadel  of  his  Godhead.  Being  in  its  very 
nature  the  most  godless  of  sins,  God  from  his  very 
nature  cannot  allow  it  to  go  unpunished.  True, 
he  may  not,  and  indeed,  does  not  often  punish  this 
sin  in  this  world :  for  this  is  a  physical  world, 
whereas,  this  sin  is  a  spiritual  sin,  a  sin  against  the 

John  iT, 24.  very  nature  of  God,  for  God  is  spirit.  Neverthe- 
less, even  the  next  world  will  doubtless  be  also  a 
physical  world,  although  under  more  spiritual  con- 
ditions. Did  you  ever  read  that  remarkable  asser- 
tion of  the  famous  mathematician,  Cliarles  Bab- 
bage,  in  the  "Ninth  Bridgewater  Treatise,"  to  the 
effect  that  the  slightest  word,  though  it  be  but  a 
whispered  interjection,  vibrating  in  the  air,  sets  in 
operation  a  series  of  changes  which  undulate  to  the 


THE   THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  101 

very  outskirts  of  creation,  rising  and  falling  like 

an  everlasting  tide?     It  is  a  pathetic  touch  when 

the  author  of  '^  Tristram  Shandy,"  having  quoted 

an  oath,  adds : 

The  accusing  Spirit,  which  flew  up  to  heaven's  chancery   "Tristram^ 
with  the  oath,  blushed  as  he  gave  it  in :  and  the  Recording  ^°  ^* 

Angel,  as  he  wrote  it  down,  dropped  a  tear  upon  the  word, 
and  blotted  it  out  forever. 

The  sentiment,  however,  is  as  fanciful  as  it  is 
pathetic.  John  Milton  comes  nearer  to  scientific 
truth  when  he  speaks  of: 

Airy  tongues,  that  syllable  men's  names  "Comus." 

On  sands  and  shores  and  desert  wildernesses. 

The  whole  material  universe  is  a  mighty  whisper- 
ing gallery,  in  which  the  Infinite  One  is  everlast- 
ingly hearing  every  word,  every  whisper,  breathed 
by  every  human  being,  from  the  day  Adam  pro- 
nounced his  first  vocable  in  Eden  to  the  day  when 
human  time  shall  be  no  more.  If,  then,  the 
scarcely  audible  rustle  of  an  unconscious  aspen  leaf 
sets  in  inexorable  motion  atom  after  atom — from 
leaf  to  tree,  from  tree  to  earth,  from  earth  to  star, 
till  the  whole  material  creation  responds  in  undu- 
lation— think  you  that  an  oath,  spoken  by  con- 
scious, responsible  man,  will  ever  die  away,  or  go 
unpunished  ?  Oh,  no !  Jehovah  will  not  hold 
him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

III.  Let  me,  in  conclusion,  present  two 
thoughts : 

1.  First:  The  knowledge  of  Jehovah's  name  The  Reveia- 
has  been  an  unfolding  process.  Let  me  take  as  an  jJame  Pro^ 
illustration  three  Scriptural  incidents.  gressive. 


102  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Jacob  at  Pen-       («)  It  is  uiglit,  and  the  patriarch  Jacob  is  alone 

Geif.^'xxxii,  22-  ^7  the  brook  Jabhok.  Suddenly  a  mysterious 
^^'  antagonist  comes  against  him,  and  wrestles  with 

him  until  the  breaking  of  the  day.  Seeing  that 
he  does  not  prevail  against  him,  the  stranger 
touches  the  hollow  of  Jacob's  thigh,  and  disjoints 
him.  The  crippled  wrestler,  victorious  through 
his  very  defeat,  in  adoring  curiosity  asks  :  "  Tell 
me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  name  ! "  The  unknown  con- 
queror vouchsafes  as  his  only  answer  a  question  in 
turn :  "  Wherefore  is  it  that  thou  dost  ask  after 
my  name?"  And  he  blessed  him  there.  Thus 
the  patriarch's  adoring  curiosity  is  both  gratified 
and  baffled ;  gratified,  because  he  has  been  blessed 
in  being  permitted  to  see  God  face  to  face;  baffled, 
because  he  is  not  allowed  to  learn  his  Blesser's 
name.  This  august  reticence;  what  an  awful 
symbol  it  was  of  Jehovah's  reserve  in  Revelation's 
gray,  indistinct  dawn  ! 

Moses  at  Ho-  (6)  Centuries  roll  away.  Israel's  emancipator 
^^^*  and  lawgiver,  in  a  moment  of  rapt  communion,  ex- 

Exod.xxxiii,i8.  claims:  "Shew  me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  glory !''     The 

august  One  answers : 

Exod.xxxiii,l8-  I  will  make  all  my  goodness  pass  b'efore  thee,  and  will  pro- 
^*^"  claim  the  name  of  Jehovah  before  thee  ;  and  I  will  be  gracious 

to  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will  shew  mercy  on  whom  I 
will  shew  mercy.  Thou  canst  not  see  my  face  ;  for  man  shall 
not  see  me  and  live.  Behold,  there  is  a  place  by  me,  and  thou 
Shalt  stand  upon  the  rock ;  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  while 
my  glory  passeth  by,  that  I  will  put  thee  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock, 
and  will  cover  thee  with  my  hand  until  I  have  passed  by  ;  and 
I  will  take  away  my  hand,  and  thou  shalt  see  my  back  ;  but  my 
face  shall  not  be  seen. 

Exod.  xxxiv,  5,       And  the  august  One  descends  in  the  cloud,  and 


THE  THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  103 

passed  by  before  Moses,  and  proclaimed  his  own 
infinite  name: 

Jehovah,  Jehovah,  a  God  full  of  compassion,  and  gracious,  Exod.  xxxiv,&- 
slow  to  anger,  and  plenteous  in  mercy  and  truth ;  keeping 
mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and 
sin  :  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty  ;  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the  chil- 
dren's children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation. 

And  Moses  makes  haste,  and  bows  his  head 
toward  tlie  earth,  and  worships.  Thus  the  reve- 
lation to  the  lawgiver  at  Horeb  was  an  advance 
upon  the  revelation  to  the  patriarch  at  Peniel. 
Still,  it  was  only  an  indirect  disclosure;  the 
glimpse,  not  of  Jehovah's  face,  but  only  of  his 
back,  as,  with  tornado  rush,  he  swept  by. 

(c)  Fifteen  more  centuries  roll  away.     -In  a  se-  Philip  in  the 

^  ^  .  "^  G uest- 

cluded  guest-chamber  Jesus  and  his  eleven  are  cele-      chamber, 
brating  the  passover  supper.     It  is  his  last  night  on 
earth  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows.     Parting  words  of 
holy  counsel  and  love  fall  from  his  lips : 

Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled  ;  believe  in  God,  believe  also  John  xiv,  1-10. 
in  me.  In  my  Father's  house  are  many  mansions ;  if  it 
were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you,  for  I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a  place  for  you,  I  come 
again,  and  will  receive  you  unto  myself;  that  where  I  am, 
there  ye  may  be  also.  And  whither  I  go,  ye  know  the  way. 
Thomas  saith  unto  him,  Lord,  we  know  not  whither  thou 
goest;  how  know  we  the  way?  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  I  am 
the  way,  and  the  truth,  and  the  life ;  no  one  cometh  unto  the 
Father,  but  by  me.  If  ye  had  known  me,  ye  would  have 
known  my  Father  also ;  from  henceforth  ye  know  him,  and 
have  seen  him.  Philip  saitn  unto  him,  Lord,  shew  us  the 
Father,  and  it  suflSceth  us.  Jesus  saith  unto  him,  Have  I 
been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  dost  thou  not  know  me, 
Philip?  He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father;  how 
sayest  thou,  Shew  us  the  Father?  Believest  thou  not  that  I 
am  in  the  Father,  and  the  Father  in  me  ? 


104  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Thus  Jesus  Christ  is  the  cuhiiiuating  revelation 
Heb.i,  1,2.         of  God.     "  God,  having  of  old  time  spoken  unto 
the  fathers  iu  the  prophets  by  divers  portions  and 
in  divers  manners,  hatli  at  the  end  of  these  days 
John  i,  18.  spoken  unto  us  iu  his  Son.'^     "No  man  hath  seen 

God  at  any  time;  the  only  begotten  Son,  who  is  in 
the  bosom  of  the  Father,  lie  hath  declared  him" — 
made  exegesis  of  him,  interpreted  him,  made  him 
known.  In  his  own  person  and  character  and 
words  and  work,  in  his  own  sweet  manners  and 
sympathetic  passion  and  vicarious  death,  we  see 
Col.  i,  15.  the  image  of  the  invisible  God,  the  picture  and 

demonstration  of  Jehovah  as  our  Heavenly  Father. 
He  that  seeth  the  Son  seeth  the  Father  also.  No 
longer  need  an  ^schylus  pray:  ^' Zeus,  whoever 
thou  art,  if  this,  or  whatever  be  the  name  by 
which  thou  art  pleased  to  be  called,  I  call  on  thee, 
and  pray."  No  longer  need  worshi}3ers,  whether 
idolaters  in  heathen  lands  or  agnostics  in  a  Chris- 
Acts  xvu,  23.  tian,  erect  altars  bearing  this  inscription  :  AFNQITQ 
9EQy  To  AN  Unknown  God.  Jesus  Christ  is 
Deity  made  known.  No  longer  need  a  Moses  pray, 
"  Shew  me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  glory."  The  same 
Gen.  i,  3.  God  who  iu  the  l)eginning  said.  Out  of  darkness 

2Cor.  iv,6.         let  light  shiue,  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to  give 
the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in 
the  face  of  Jesus  Christ ;    even    him    who  is  the 
Heb.i, 3.  effulgence  of   the   Father's   glory,  and    the   very 

image  of  his   substance,  impress   of   his  essence. 
No  longer  need  a  Jacob  pray,   "  Tell    me,  I  pray 
thee,  thy  name."     Jesus  Christ  is  the  Word,  the 
John  i,  1.  articulation,  the  very  name  of  God.     "  In  the  be- 


THE  THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  105 

ginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was  with 
God,  and  the  Word  was  God."  Oh,  not  Philip's 
prayer,  "  Lord,  shew  us  the  Father,  and  it  sufficeth  Johnxiy.s. 
us,"  but  its  converse,  is  the  prayer  which  befits 
us :  "  Shew  us,  O  Spirit  Most  Holy,  thou  who  John  xvi,  15. 
takest  of  Christ's  things  and  shewest  them  to  us, 
shew  us  the  Son  ;  that  so  we  may  see,  and  under- 
stand, and  love,  and  trust,  and  commune  with  the 
Father ;  shew  us  the  Son,  and  it  sufficeth  us." 
Aye,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  name  of  God. 

2.  Lastly:  Cultivate  the  spirit  of  reverence.  For  Cultivate 
ours  is  an  age  of  iconoclasm,  overthrowing  ances- 
tral traditions,  dethroning  venerable  beliefs,  mak- 
ing the  sacred  common,  dissolving  the  sacramental 
in  the  physical  equation  of  correspondence  with 
environment:  in  brief,  shattering  the  very  instinct 
of  homage.  And  this  is  peril  indeed.  For,  as 
Kalph  Waldo  Emerson  says,  *'  No  greater  calamity 
can  befall  a  nation  than  its  loss  of  worship."  Bad 
as  heathenism  is,  irreligion  is  worse.  Better  super- 
stition than  atheism  !  With  the  poet  of  Windermere : 

I'd  rather  be  "Sonnets." 

A  pagan,  suckled  in  a  creed  outworn  ; 
So  might  I,  standing  on  this  pleasant  lea, 
Have  glimpses,  that  would  make  me  less  forlorn  ; 
Have  sight  of  Proteus  rising  from  the  sea  ; 
Or  hear  old  Triton  blow  his  wreathed  horn. 

Young  man,  believe  me ;  no  man  is  ever  so  great 
as  when  he  kneels.  Be  it  yours  to  have  the  same 
lowly  reverence  which  so  beautifully  marked  such 
illustrious  scientists  as  a  Galen,  who  regarded  his 
professional  life  as  "  a  religious  hymn  in  honor  of 


106  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

the  Creator '*;  a  Copernicus,  on  whose  tombstone, 
in  St.  John's  of  Frauenburg,  is  the  following 
epitaph :  "  Not  the  grace  bestowed  on  Paul  do  I 
ask,  not  the  favor  shown  to  Peter  do  I  crave ;  but 
that  which  thou  didst  grant  the  robber  on  the 
cross  do  I  implore 'V  ^  Kepler,  who  concludes 
his  treatise  entitled  '^Harmony  of  the  Worlds^' 
thus:  "I  thank  thee,  my  Creator  and  Lord,  that 
thou  hast  given  me  this  joy  in  thy  creation,  this 
delight  in  the  works  of  thy  hands;  I  have  shown 
the  excellency  of  thy  works  unto  men,  so  far  as 
my  finite  mind  was  able  to  comprehend  thine  in- 
finity ;  if  I  have  said  aught  unworthy  of  thee,  or 
aught  in  which  I  have  sought  my  own  glory, 
graciously  forgive  it '';  a  Newton,  who  never  men-  , 
tioned  the  name  of  Deity  without  uncovering  his 
head ;  a  Faraday,  who  amid  his  profound  researches 
never  forgot  his  little  obscure  Sandemanian  chapel; 
a  Dana,  who  concludes  his  "  Observations  on  Geo- 
logical History"  with  the  august  words — ^^ Deus 
Fecit ";  a  Bacon,  who  prayed  as  follows : 

"WorksofFran-       Thou,  0  Father!  who  gavest  the  visible  light  as  the  first- 
^^f^T^Jl\n?^'    born  of  thy  creatures,  and  didst  pour  into  man  the  intellectual 

XIV,  pAgQ  1U^«  •' 

light  as  the  top  and  consummation  of  thy  workmanship,  be 
pleased  to  protect  and  govern  this  work,  which  coming  from  thy 
goodness  returneth  to  thy  glory.  Thou,  after  thou  hadst  reviewed 
the  works  which  thy  hands  had  made,  beheldest  that  every- 
thing was  very  good ;  and  thou  didst  rest  with  complacency 
in  them.  But  man  reflecting  on  the  works  which  he  had  made, 
saw  that  all  was  vanity  and  vexation  of  spirit,  and  could  by 
no  means  acquiesce  in  them.    Wherefore  if  we  labor  in  thy 

^  Non  parem  Pauli  gratiam  requiro, 
Veniam  Petri  neque  posco,  sed  quam 
In  crucis  ligno  dederas  latroni, 
Sedulus  oro. 


THE  THIRD   COMMANDMENT.  107 

works  with  the  sweat  of  our  brows,  thou  wilt  make  us  par- 
takers of  thy  vision  and  thy  Sabbath.  We  humbly  beg  that 
this  mind  may  be  steadfastly  in  us,  and  that  thou,  by  our 
hands  and  also  by  the  hands  of  others  on  whom  thou  shalt 
bestow  the  same  spirit,  wilt  please  to  convey  a  largeness  of 
new  alms  to  thy  family  of  mankind.  These  things  we  com- 
mend to  thy  everlasting  love,  by  our  Jesus,  thy  Christ,  God 
with  us.    Amen. 

Cultivate,  then,  the   faculty   of  reverence,   the 
capacity  of  worship,  the  instinct  of  adoration. 

OuB  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  tht   Matt,  vi, 

NAME. 

Almighty  God,  unto  whom  all  hearts  are  open,  all  desires    Collect, 
known,  and    from  whom   no  secrets  are  hid ;    Cleanse  the 
thoughts  of  our  hearts  by  the  inspiration  of  thy  Holy  Spirit, 
that  we  may  perfectly  love  thee,  and  worthily  magnify  thy 
holy  Name ;  through  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen, 


Y. 

THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Kemember  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days 
Shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work :  but  the  seventh 
day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God  :  in  it  thou  shalt 
not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter, 
thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant,  nor  thy  cattle, 
nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates :  for  in  six 
days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all 
that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day :  wherefore 
Jehovah  blessed  the  sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it. 

Exodus  XX,  8-11. 


THE  FOURTH  COMMANDMENT. 

In  our  study  of  the  First  Commandment,  we  Recapituia- 
saw  that  we  are  to  worship  Jehovah  our  God,  and  ^^^^' 
him  only :  "I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  brought 
thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of 
bondage ;  thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before 
me."  In  our  study  of  the  Second  Commandment, 
we  saw  that  we  are  to  worship  Jehovah  our  God 
directly,  without  the  intervention  of  images  of 
any  kind:  "Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a 
graven  image,  nor  the  likeness  of  any  form  that  is  in 
heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the  earth  beneath."  In 
our  stndy  of  the  Third  Commandment,  we  saw  that 
we  are  to  worship  Jehovah  our  God  sincerely,  de- 
voutly, adoringly  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name 
of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain."  In  briefest  words, 
we  are  to  worship  God ;  we  are  to  worship  him 
directly ;  we  are  to  worship  him  devoutly. 

And  here  a  question  arises:  How  often  are  we  The  Fourth 
to  worship  God?  The  Fourth  Commandment  ^eT^'"'^' 
answers  this  question : 

Remember  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  Exod.  xx,  8-11. 
days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work;  but  the 
seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God :  in 
it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor 
thy  daughter,  thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant, 
nor  thy  cattle^  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy 

111 


112  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

gates:  f(yr  in  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the 
seventh  day :  wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  sabbath 
day,  and  hallowed  it. 

Duties  of  I.  In  pondering  the  Fourth  Commandment,  note, 

Command-  ^^^^j  *^^  duties  which  it  enjoins: 
ment.  Remember  the  sabbath  day^  to  keep  it  holy.     Six 

days  shalt  thou  labour  and  do  all  thy  work :  but  tlie 
seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God : 
in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son, 
nor  thy  daughter,  thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidser- 
vant, nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within 
thy  gates. 

Duty  of  Work.       1.  And,  first,  the  duty  of  work:  ^^  Six  days  shalt 
thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work.^^ 

Observe:  Jehovah  our  God  commands  us  to 
work  six  days,  as  well  as  to  rest  on  the  seventh 
day.      In   fact,  work  is  man's  normal  condition. 

Gen.  ii,  7-15.  No  sooucr  had  the  Creator  planted  the  garden  of 
Eden,  than  he  put  the  man  whom  he  had  just 
formed  into  the  garden,  to  till  it,  and  to  keep  it. 
Eden  was  the  birthplace  of  industry.  Man  is  to 
work,  first,  for  the  soiFs  sake.  Generous  as  Mother 
Nature  is,  she  is  generous,  as  a  rule,  only  to  those 
who  industriously  and  skillfully  avail  themselves 
of  her  resources.  Her  capacities  are  latent  as  well 
as  vast,  and  need  the  quickening,  unfolding,  mar- 
shaling power  of  a  tireless  and  skillful  labor.  A 
very  laboratory  she  is,  whence  the  husbandman — 
that  true  chemist  for  society — obtains,  by  elabora- 
tion, those  indispensable  products  of  the  soil  which 
are  more  truly  treasures  than  the  diamonds  of  Gol- 


THE   FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  113 

conda.  The  first  of  all  arts  was  agriculture,  and 
the  first  of  all  laborers  a  sinless  man.  Again: 
Man  is  to  work  for  his  own  sake.  He,  also,  has 
latent  capacities,  and  as  vast  as  latent,  which  can 
be  brought  into  light  and  usefulness  only  as  the  ' 
are  subjected  to  the  quickening,  unfolding  power 
of  a  wisely-directed  exercise.  No  man  knows 
what  reservoirs  of  force  lie  within  him  till  he  sets 
himself  to  work  in  the  way  his  Maker  appoints  for 
him.  He  who  does  not  use  his  faculties  is  as 
though  he  had  none.  And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that 
indolence  and  barbarism  go  hand  in  hand.  The 
busy  beehive  that  is  large  enough  for  its  myriad 
workers  is  too  small  for  a  single  drone.  Here,  at 
least,  in  part,  is  the  key  to  that  greats  problem — the 
cure  of  pauperism :  it  is  work.  Regard  with  dis- 
trust every  able-bodied  man  who  is  unwilling  to 
work— that  is,  when  he  has  opportunity.  It  is  a 
mistaken  kindness,  founded  neither  in  reason  nor 
in  morality,  which  feeds  the  healthy  mendicant 
who  would  rather  beg  than  dig.  I  know  that  it 
seems  hard  to  turn  away  from  the  tattered  wretch 
who,  like  your  dog,  piteously  supplicates  for  the 
crumbs  which  fall  from  your  table.  But  it  is  pre- 
cisely because  this  tattered  wretch  is  not  a  dog,  but 
a  man,  that  makes  it  sinful  to  pamper  him  in  his 
wicked  laziness.  Employment  for  the  suffering 
poor  is  a  wiser  and  more  generous  bounty  than  a 
ten  thousand  gratuities.  When  will  legislators, 
prompted  though  they  may  be  by  the  purest  phil- 
anthropy, cease  substituting  human  enactments,  in 
the  shape  of  Poor  Laws,  for  the  divine  armnge- 


114  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

ment  that  maintenance  is  the  natural  product  of  a 
properly  rewarded  industry?     Listen  to  the  greatest 

2  Thess.  iii,  10.  of  the  apostles :  "  If  any  will  not  work,  neither 
let   him   eat.''      Listen  to  one  greater   than   any 

Matt.  X,  10.  apostle,  even  him  who  sent  forth  his  twelve :  "  The 
labourer  is  worthy  of  his  food."  Let  these  two 
principles  be  carried  out,  and  the  problem  of  politi- 
cal economy  is  largely  solved.     Once  more :  Man 

Gen.  ii,  15.  is  to  work  for  God's  sake.     Not  only  is  he  to  "  dress  " 

or  till  the  garden,  and  so  develop  its  resources :  he 
is  also  to  "keep"  the  garden,  and  so  hold  it  in 
trust  for  its  real  owner,  gratefully  and  homagefully 
returning  to  God  the  fruits  of  his  own  industry. 
Thus  labor  and  stewardship,  vigilance  and  respon- 
sibility, have  their  birth  in  Eden.  Work — that  is, 
all  true  work — means  accountability.  Work,  then, 
I  repeat,  is  man's  normal  condition,  his  condition 
as  man  before  he  fell.  And  if  it  was  needful  that 
man  should  work  while  he  was  still  sinless,  how 
much  more  needful  is  it  now,  since  he  has  fallen, 

Gen. iii,  17, 18.  and  the  ground  has  been  cursed  for  his  sake;  so 
that  in  place  of  the  iig  has  come  up  the  thorn,  and 
in  place  of  the  grape  has  come  up  the  brier.  In 
Eden  man  had  to  work  in  order  to  subdue  nature ; 
now  man  has  to  work  lest  nature  should  subdue 
him.  "Six  days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  thy 
work." 

Duty  of  Rest.  2.  Secondly,  the  duty  of  rest:  '^  The  seventh 
day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God:  in  it  thou 
shalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy 
daughter,  thy  manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant,  nor 
thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gatesj* 


THE   FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  115 

(a)  No  one  familiar  with  the  Bible  can  fail  to  seven  the  Sa^ 
be  struck  with  the  frequency  with  which  it  men-      ^^^^      ^^' 
tions   the   number   seven.     For   example:    Seven   Gen. vii, 2-4. 
days  was  Noah  allowed  in  which  to  stock  his  ark 
with  tiie  preservers  of  the  animal  kingdom,  and  of 
each  kind  of  clean  animals  he  was  to  take  seven  ; 
geven  days  elapsed  between  each  of  the  three  mis-  Gen.  viii,  8-12. 
sions  of  his  dove ;  seven  vears  did  Jacob  serve  for  Gen.  xxix,  is- 

•'  28. 

Leah,  and  seven  more  for  Rachel;  seven  well-  Gen. xii, 26-30. 
favored  kine  and  seven  ill-favored,  seven  full  ears 
of  corn  and  seven  blasted,  did  Pharaoh  see  in  his 
dreams ;  seven  years  of  plenty  and  seven  years  of 
famine  did  Egypt  experience ;  seven  altars  did  Num.  xxus,  1,2. 
Balak  set  up,  and  offered  thereon  seven  bullocks 
and  seven  rams;  seven  was  to  be  the  aggregate  Lev.xxiii. 
number  of  the  holy  convocations  of  the  Hebrew 
Year ;  the  seventh  day  was  to  be  the  sabbath  day, 
the  seventh  week  after  passover  the  sabbath  week, 
the  sevienth  month  to  be  the  sabbath  month,  the 
seventh  year  to  be  the  sabbath  year,  the  seven 
times  seventh  year  the  great  sabbath  year  of  the 
sabbath  years — that  is,  the  year  of  Jubilee;  seven 
weeks  were  appointed  as  the  interval  between  Pen- 
tecost and  Passover,  seven  days  as  the  length  of  the 
feasts  of  Passover  and  Tabernacles ;  seven  days 
were  the  priests  to  be  in  course  of  consecration ; 
seven  things  were  to  be  offered  in  sacrifice;  seven 
utensils  were  to  be  the  indispensables  of  the  taber- 
nacle, and  the  candlestick  was  to  be  seven-branched ; 
seven  days  were  appointed  for  ceremonial  lustra- 
tion, and  for  the  interval  between  birth  and  cir- 
cumcision ;  seven  was  the  number  in  compacts,  in 


116 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Josh.  vi. 

2  Kings  V,  10. 

Dan.iv,  32. 
Isa.  XXX,  26. 


Matt,  xviii,  22. 
Acts  vi,  3. 
Rev.  jMssim, 


treaties  of  peace,  in  marriage  settlements ;  seven  is 
solemnly  embalmed  in  the  Hebrew  term  for  oath, 
the  term  signifying  ''to  swear/^  literally  meaning 
"  to  do  seven  times  ^';  seven  times  was  Jericho  sur- 
rounded, and  on  the  seventh  day  it  was  surrounded 
by  seven  priests  blowing  seven  trumpets ;  seven 
times  was  Naaman  bidden  to  dip  himself  in  Jordan  ; 
seven  periods  were  to  pass  over  Nebuchadnezzar  in 
his  insanity;  sevenfold  is  to  be  the  light  of  the 
sun  in  the  restitution  as  the  light  of  seven  days; 
Jesus  Christ  himself  was  the  seventy-seventh 
from  Adam,  and  he  bids  us  forgive  not  only  seven 
times,  but  also  seventy  times  seven  ;  seven  deacons 
were  appointed  by  the  infant  church  ;  seven  is 
the  apocalyptic  numeral — for  example :  the  seven 
churches,  the  .seven  spirits,  the  seven  candlesticks, 
the  seven  stars,  the  seven  seals,  the  sev^en  horns, 
the  seven  eyes,  the  seven  angels,  the  seven  trum- 
pets, the  seven  thunders,  the  seven  plagues,  the 
seven  vials,  the  seven  visions,  the  sevenfold  doxol- 
ogy  to  God  and  the  Lamb.  But  why  cite  more? 
Holy  Scripture,  from  Genesis  to  Apocalypse,  teems 
with  this  mystic  numeral,  seven.  And,  for  aught 
we  know,  seven  is  still  the  symbolic,  dominical 
number  of  God's  administration,  regulating  the 
whole  world's  history,  from  his  rest  on  the  seventh 
day  in  Eden  to  his  Church's  rest  on  the  seventh 
day  in  the  Eden  to  come.  If  you  ask  me  why  the 
Bible  selects  this  numeral  seven  as  its  regent  num- 
ber, I  cannot  answer.  Perhaps  this  is  among  the 
icor.  xiii,9-i2.  niauy  riddles  we  shall  understand  when  that  which 
is  perfect  is  come,  and  we  shall  no  longer  see  in  a 


THE   FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  117 

mirror,  darkly  or  enigmatically,  but  face  to  face. 
Meantime,  all  I  ask  you  to  observe  in  this  connec- 
tion is  this :  Seven  is  the  tonic,  or  keynote,  of  the 
scale  of  the  Hebrew  numeration — a  fact  perhaps 
owinor  to  the  venerable  circumstance  that  seven  was 
the  completing,  perfecting  number  of  the  creative 
week. 

(6)  Now  the  seventh  day,  or  sabbath,  I  repeat.  The  Seventh 
was  divinely  appointed  to  be  a  day  of  rest :  in  fact,  of^Rest.  ^^ 
the  word  sabbath  is  but  a  transliteration  of  the 
Hebrew  word  shabbath,  meaning  to  rest  from 
labor.  The  seventh  day  is  to  be  a  day  of  rest  for 
tFie  bod \',  jaded  with  the  toils  of  the  week:  a  day 
of  rest  for  the  mind,  jaded  with  the  cares  of  the 
week :  a  day  of  rest  for  the  heart,  jaded  with  the 
griefs  of  the  week.  Observe  also  that  our  com- 
mandment forbids  all  work  of  whatev^er  kind  ;  and 
this  not  only  on  the  part  of  the  head  of  the  family, 
but  also  on  the  part  of  his  children,  his  employees, 
his  visitors,  and  even  his  cattle. 

3.  Thirdly,  the  duty  of  worships  or  sacred  rest :  Duty  of  s  a 
"  The  seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy 
God:  remember  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy  J'  The 
sabbath,  if  I  may  so  say,  is  God's  weekly  toll  on 
mankind,  the  periodical  tribute  which  he  demands 
in  token  of  human  fealty.  Living  in  this  mate- 
rial world,  burdened  by  the  catastrophe  of  the  fall, 
we  cannot  give  all  our  time  to  the  formal  worship 
of  our  Creator  and  Benefactor  :  we  have  to  work 
six  days  for  ourselves.  But  once  a  week  we  are 
bidden  to  give  a  symbolic  toll  of  our  allegiance  and 
adoration.     What    delight    angels    must   take   in 


118  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

observing  humanity's  myriads  kneeling  as  the  sab- 
bath sun  circles  earth's  latitudes ! 

Reason  forthe       II.  Having  noted  the  duties  which  the  Fourth 

Command-    Commandment  enjoins,  observe  now,  secondly,  the 

ment.  reason  which  the  Fourth  Commandment  assigns: 

For  in  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and  earth, 

the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh 

day :  wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  sabbath  day,  and 

hallowed  it. 

It  recalls  the  primeval  account  of  the  close  of 

Gen. ii,  1-3.  the  Creative  process:  "  The  heaven  and  the  earth 
were  finished,  and  all  the  host  of  them.  And  on 
the  seventh  day  God  finished  his  work  which  he 
had  made ;  and  he  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from 
all  his  work  which  he  had  made.  And  God 
blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  hallowed  it :  because 
that  in  it  he  rested  from  all  his  work  which  God 
had  created  and  made." 

Close  of  the  1.  Observe,  First,  the  cessation  of  the  creative 
Process?  process :  ^^  In  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that. in  them  is'':  ^^and  on 
the  seventh  day  God  finished  all  his  work  which  he 
had  madeJ'  I  enter  upon  no  discussion  touching 
the  length  of  the  creative  "  days."  Enough  that 
the  scholars  of  Christendom  afiirm  that  the  days 
of  the  creative  week  were  indefinite  ages.  It 
matters  not.  The  point  here  is  not  concerning 
the  length  of  the  days :  the  point  is  that  at  the  end 
of  the  six  days,  whatever  their  length,  the  Creator 
is  represented  as  having  ended  his  creative  work. 
Observe  precisely  the  kind  of  activity  from  which 
Deity  ceased  on  the  seventh  day :  it  was  not  the 


THE  FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  119 

activity  of  administration,  either  in  providence  or 
in  morals — our  Father  worketh  even  until  now —  John  v,  17. 
but  it  was  the  activity  of  creating :  God  finished 
his  work  which  he  had  created.  And  physical 
science  strikingly  confirms  the  hoary  archive. 
However  much  scientists  may  disagree  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  universe,  or  the  age  of  the  globe,  or 
the  method  of  the  geologic  processes,  or  the 
antiquity  of  man,  they  all  agree  in  one  point — 
namely,  Man  himself  was  the  last  organism  to 
appear  on  this  earth's  stage. 

2.  Secondly,  the  Creator^ s  resting :  ^^And  Jeho-  The  Creator's 
vah  rested  the  seventh  day.''  But  you  interrupt  me 
with  a  question  :  "How  is  this  possible?  Does 
not  resting  imply  fatigue,  infirmity,  finiteness? 
Does  not  his  own  prophet  declare  :  '  The  everlasting  isa.  xi,  28. 
God,  Jehovah,  the  Creator  of  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
fainteth  not,  neither  is  weary'?  How,  then,  can 
infinite  God  be  said  to  rest  ? ''  Observe,  tlien,  first, 
and  in  a  general  way,  the  poverty  of  human  speech 
and  human  thought  when  Deity  is  the  theme. 
How  can  the  finite  ever  take  in  the  infinite,  the 
bounded  the  boundless?  Infinite  God  can  become 
known  to  us  only  in  the  measures  of  bureau  capa- 
cities, through  the  interpretations  and  hints  of 
human  relations  and  feelings.  Hence  all  our 
thought  and  speech  of  him  is  and  must  be  in 
imagery.  Hence  the  frequent  Scripture  represen- 
tations of  him  under  figures  of  human  organs  and 
affections ;  for  example :  God's  hand,  God's  voice, 
God's  heart,  God  did  so  and  so,  etc.  To  speak  of 
him  as  having  these  human  organs,  or  as  doing  this 


120  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

and  that  in  connection  with  days  and  years,  or  any 
human  notations  of  time,  is  to  speak  of  him  after 
the  manner  of  men.  Nevertheless,  we  cannot  con- 
ceive him  except  in  measures  of  our  own  finite- 
ness :  and  so  we  are  forced  to  speak  of  him,  as  does 
also  the  Bible,  as  being  situate  in  space  and  acting 
in  time.  Thus  the  laureate's  lines  touching  the 
Divine  Workman  and  his  work  : 

Tennyson,  Let  there  be  light  and  there  was  light ;  'tis  so  : 

••Princess."  j^^j.  ^^^g^  ^^^^  jg^  ^^^  ^j^  ^ye,  are  but  is  ; 

And  all  creation  is  one  act  at  once, 

The  birth  of  light :  but  we  that  are  not  all, 

As  parts,  can  see  but  parts,  now  this,  now  that, 

And  live,  perforce,  from  thought  to  thought,  and  make 

One  act  a  phantom  of  succession  :  thus 

Our  weakness  somehow  shapes  the  shadow.  Time. 

Not  that  the  Creator  absolutely  rested  on  the 
seventh  day ;  but  to  us  finite  beings  he  seemed  to 
rest,  his  seeming  to  rest  being  a  sign,  not  of  his 
fatigue,  but  of  his  condescension  to  our  finite- 
ness.  He  no  more  rested  in  the  sense  of  reposing 
than  he  uttered  the  creative  "  God-saids  "  in  audi- 
ble articulations,  or  breathed  into  the  first  man's 
nostrils,  or  took  from  him  one  of  his  ribs  and 
turned  it  into  a  woman.  But,  while  this  is  true, 
there  is  a  sense  in  which  even  God  may  be  said  to 
have  rested  ;  it  was  the-  rest  of  holy,  blessed,  festal 
contemplation.  For  the  work  of  creation  was  fin- 
ished, not  only  in  the  sense  of  being  ended,  but  also 
in  the  sense  of  being  perfected.  Man's  works,  alas! 
are  oftener  ended  than  finished.  Twice  only  in 
this  world  of  ours  has  that  word  ^'  Finished  "  been 
used  in  absolute  truth  :  first,  in  the  end  of  the  first 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  121 

creation,  when  the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  had 
created  the  man  and  the  woman  in  his  own  image 
and  likeness,  and  so  were  finished  the  heavens  and 
the  earth  and  all  their  host ;  and,  secondly,  in  the 
end  of  the  second  creation,  when  the  same.  Maker 
of  heaven  and  earth  restored  on  the  cross  the  lost 
image  and  likeness,  and  so  exclaimed  :  "It  is  fin-  Johnxii,3o. 
ished  ! "  And  how  intense  must  have  been  the 
Creator's  delight  as  he  surveyed  his  finished  work, 
and  pronounced  it  very  good  !  Even  in  this  world 
of  imperfections  and  failures,  where  our  ideals  are 
so  seldom  reached,  how  intense  the  delight,  for 
instance,  the  artist  sometimes  feels  as  he  gazes  on 
his  finished  statue,  or  picture,  or  building !  He 
not  only  ceases  from  toil :  he  verily  rests — the  rest, 
not  of  repose,  but  of  joy.  Even  so,  if  I  may  ven- 
ture to  compare  Creator  with  creature,  did  the 
Maker  of  the  universe  rest  on  the  seventh  day.  It 
was  the  rest  of  a  holy,  festal  celebration  over  a  per- 
fected work  ;  a  perfect  filling-out  of  a  divine  ideal ; 
an  absolute  equilibrium  of  plan  and  execution. 
It  was  the  sabbath  of  God,  Jehovah's  blessed  rest. 

3.    Thirdly,   the   Creator's   sandification   of   the  The    Seventh 
seventh  day :    "  Wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  sab-      lowed. 
bath  day,  and  hallowed  it.''    That  is  to  say,  Jehovah 
separated  the  seventh  day  from  the  other  six  days 
of  the  creative  week,  setting  it  apart,  distinguishing 
it,  consecrating  it.     Not  that  he  made  the  seventh 
day  holy,  as  though  the  other  six  days  were  unholy  : 
but  he  made  the  seventh  day  peculiar,  as  though        ' 
the  other  six  days  were  ordinary.     He  did  not  rest 
on  the  seventh  day  because  it  was  hallowed ;  but 
11 


122  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  seventh  day  became  hallowed  because  he  rested 
[Jen.  ii,  3.  on  it.    "  God  blcsscd  the  seventh  day,  and  hallowed 

it ;  because  that  in  it  he  rested  from  all  his  work 
which  God  had  created  and  made.  What  though  the 
seven  days  of  the  Sinaitic  week  were  ordinary  days 
of  twenty-four  hours  each,  while  the  seven  days  of 
the  creative  week  were  extraordinary  days  of  in- 
definite length?  It  affects  not  the  reason  which 
the  Fourth  Commandment  assigns  for  observing  the 
seventh  day  as  the  sabbath.  That  reason  is  based, 
not  on  the  length  of  the  days,  but  on  the  fact  that 
on  the  seventh  of  the  days,  whatever  their  length, 
the  Creator  rested.  And  that  seventh  day  of  the 
creative  week  still  continues.  Although  thousands 
of  years  have  swept  by  since  God  ended  his  work 
of  creation,  it  is  still  his  sabbath,  or  rest-day. 
Works  of  necessity — that  is,  works  of  providence 
John  V,  17.  and  mercy — he  still  carries  on.  "  My  Father  work- 
eth  even  until  now,  and  I  work."  But  creation  is 
not  a  work  of  necessity.  That  work  he  ended  at 
the  close  of  the  far-off  sixth  day,  and  ever  since 
has  rested.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  underlying  thought 
of  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews. 
The  argument  of  the  chapter,  in  brief,  is  this: 
neb.iv,i-ii.  *^  God  as  Creator  is  resting  from  his  works  :  let  us 
take  care  lest,  a  promise  being  left  of  entering 
into  his  rest,  any  one  of  us  should  seem  to  have 
come  short  of  it."  There  are,  then,  three  great  sab- 
baths :  first,  the  seonian  sabbath  of  God,  resting 
from  his  creative  work ;  secondly,  the  weekly  sab- 
bath of  man,  resting  from  his  six  days  of  toil ;  and, 
thirdly,  the  eternal  sabbath  of  heaven,  even   the 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  123 

sabbatismos,  the  sabbath-rest,  which  still  remaineth  Heb.  iv,  9. 
for  the  people  of  God. 

When  will  my  pilgrimage  be  done,  James     Edmes- 

The  world's  long  week  be  o'er,  ^^^' 

That  sabbath  dawn  which  needs  no  sun, 
That  day  which  fades  no  more  ? 

Such  is  the  seventh  day  of  the  Fourth  Command- 
ment, or  the  Mosaic  sabbath. 

III.  And  now  we  pass  from  the  Fourth  Com-  Christ's  Doc- 
mandment   to   Christ's   doctrine   of  the   sabbath :      Sabbath. 
"The  sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for  Mark  11,23-23. 
the  sabbath  :  so  that  the  Son  of  man  is  lord  even  of 
the  sabbath."     It  is  one  of  the  profoundest  sayings 
of  him  who  always  spake  profoundly.    Let  ns  now 
give  to  this  saying  our  most  studious  and  reverent 
attention.     We  learn  from  it : 

1.  First,  Man  himself  is  the  basis  of  the  sabbath  :   ^^^"  the  Basis 

ot*  the  Sab- 

"  The  sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for      bath. 

the  sabbath."     Tliat  is  to   say:  the  sabbath,  like 

any  other  divine  institution  or  ordinance,  whether 

in   nature  or  in  morals,  was  appointed   on   man^s 

account,  for  man's    benefit,  and    not  the  converse.  ._. 

Let  us  go  somewhat  into  detail. 

(a)  And,  first,  man  needs  the  sabbath — that  is,  Man   Needs 

T  r,  n  -1  ^.1^1-  1  the  Sabbath 

one  day  01  rest  alter  six  days  of  toil — tor  his  secular      for  his  Sec- 
nature,  alike  bodilv  and  mental.  The  testimony  of      1!,,.^       ^ 


physicians,  physiologists,  political  economists,  man- 
agers of  industrial  establishments,  etc.,  is  emphatic 
on  til  is  point.  Let  me  cite  some  instances.  Dr. 
John  William  Draper,  the  eminent  physicist  and 
author,  by  no  means  a  special  champion  of  what  is 


tun 


124^  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

called  "  evangelical  '^  Christianity,  writes  as  fol- 
lows : 

Draper's  "Hu-  Out  of  the  numberless  blessings  conferred  on  our  race  by  the 
olffgv  "  pages  Church,  the  physiologist  may  be  permitted  to  select  one  for 
027,628.  remark,  which,  in  an  eminent  manner,  has  conduced  to  our 

physical  and  moral  well  being.  It  is  the  institution  of  the  sab- 
bath day.  .  .  .  No  man  can  for  any  length  of  time  pursue  one 
avocation,  or  one  train  of  thought,  without  mental  and,  there- 
fore, bodily  injury — nay,  without  insanity.  The  constitution 
of  the  brain  is  such  that  it  must  have  its  time  of  repose.  Peri- 
odicity is  stamped  upon  it.  Nor  is  it  enough  that  it  is  awake 
and  in  action  by  day,  and  in  the  silence  of  night  obtains 
rest  and  repair ;  that  same  periodicity  which  belongs  to  it 
as  a  whole,  belongs  to  all  its  constituent  parts.  One  portion 
of  it  cannot  be  called  into  incessant  activity  without  the  risk 
of  injury.  Its  different  regions,  devoted  to  different  functions, 
must  have  their  separate  times  of  rest.  The  excitement  of  one 
part  must  be  coincident  with  a  pause  in  the  action  of  another. 
It  is  not  possible  for  mental  equilibrium  to  be  maintained  with 

one  idea,  or  one  monotonous  mode  of  life Thus  a  kind 

providence  so  overrules  events  that  it  matters  not  in  what  sta- 
tion we  may  be,  wealthy  or  poor,  intellectual  or  lowly,  a  refuge 
is  always  at  hand,  and  the  mind,  worn  out  with  one  thing, 
turns  to  another,  and  its  physical  excitement  is  followed  by 
physical  repose. 

Again :  Lord  Macaulay,  in  his  speech  before 
the  House  of  Commons,  on  the  ^'  Ten  Hours'  Bill/' 
spoke  thus  : 

Mncaiilav's  The  natural  difference  between  Campania  and  Spitzbergen 

Speeches,'^      is  trifling  when  compared  with  the  difference  between  a  coun- 


vol.  2,  page  2i 


try  inhabited  by  men  full  of  bodily  and  mental  vigor,  and  a 
country  inhabited  by  men  sunk  in  bodily  and  mental  decrepi- 
tude. Therefore  it  is  that  we  are  not  poorer  but  richer,  be- 
cause we  have,  through  many  ages,  rested  from  our  labor  one 
day  in  seven.  That  day  is  not  lost.  While  industry  is  sus- 
pended, while  the  plough  lies  in  the  furrow,  while  the  ex- 
change is  silent,  while  no  smoke  ascends  from  the  factory,  a 
process  is  going  on  quite  as  important  to  the  wealth  of  nations 
as  any  process  which  is  performed  on  more  busy  days.     Man, 


THE   FOUETH    COMMANDME>-T.  125 

the  machine  of  machines,  the  machine  compared  with  which 
all  the  contrivances  of  the  Watts  and  the  Arkwrights  are 
worthless,  is  repairing  and  winding  up,  so  that  he  returns  to 
his  labors  on  the  Monday  with  clearer  intellect,  with  livelier 
spirits,  with  renewed  corporeal  vigor. 

I  niigiit  multiplj  similar  citations  iudefinitely. 
One  iii.-itorical  fact  stands  out  witii  instructive  em- 
pliasis  :  France,  in  the  time  of  her  atheistic  revo- 
lution, undertook  to  abolish  the  weekly  sabbath, 
substituting  for  it  a  rest  day  in  every  ten  days ; 
but  the  trial  of  it  worked  so  disastrously,  that,  in 
spite  of  her  atheism,  she  returned  to  the  seventh 
day.  You  may  tell  me,  indeed,  that  there  are 
many  instances  of  apparent  success  on  the  part  of 
individuals  who  disregard  the  seventh-day  institu- 
tion. But  the  question  is  not  concerning  individ- 
uals, man  by  man :  the  question  is  concerning 
society,  or  the  totality  of  a  nation.  And  society 
must  have  a  rest  day  in  every  seven.  The  sabbath 
is  the  detent,  or  "  ratchet  in  the  wheel  of  life,''  by 
regular  interpositions  of  which  life's  machinery  is 
prevented  from  turning  back,  and  so  failing.  To 
him  who  has  been  toiling  the  six  days,  how  sweetly 
does  the  sabbath  come  as  a  day  of  repair  for  his 
jaded  body,  and  of  restful  change  for  his  weary 
brain !  Now  may  the  stiffened  fingers,  which  all 
the  week  have  been  grasping  the  plane,  the  awl, 
the  crowbar,  the  type,  the  needle,  the  pen,  be  loos- 
ened ;  and  the  cramped  back,  which  has  been  wea- 
rily bending  over  spade  or  bench,  anvil  or  ledger, 
be  uplifted ;  and  the  tethered  intellect,  which  has 
been  absorbed  in  guiding  the  movements  of  hand, 
or  foot,  be  set  free  to  expatiate  amid  the  serene 


126  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

grandeurs  of  truth,  whether  written  on  the  pages  of 
Scripture  or  of  Nature.  Thus  the  sabbath,  surveyed 
as  a  compensation  reservoir,  is  as  much  a  constituent 
part  of  the  economy  of  nature  as  are  the  nutritive 
organs  and  processes,  or  the  alternation  of  day  and 
night.  Well,  then,  may  it  be  called  '^sabbath ''  — 
that  is,  "rest."  And  all  toiling  creatures,  alike 
human  and  animal,  after  working  six  days,  are 
entitled  to  this  seventh  day  of  rest.  And  even 
if  employers,  whether  individuals  or  corporations, 
care  not  for  the  sabbath  on  their  own  account,  they 
are  bound  by  every  consideration  to  give  the  sab- 
bath to  their  employees,  alike  persons  and  cattle. 

Sabbath  Leg-  And  here,  let  me  remark  in  passing,  and  here 
only,  is  the  proper  sphere  of  sabbath  legislation. 
Society  has  the  right  to  enforce  the  observance  of  the 
sabbath  on  the  groimd  of  the  public  weal — that  is, 
on  sanitary,  economic,  ethical,  social  grounds.  But 
society  has  no  right  to  enforce  the  sabbath  on  re- 
ligious grounds,  except  to  the  extent  that  it  ought 
to  guarantee  to  every  person  the  right  of  rest  and 
freedom  of  worship.  The  State  must  not  be  per- 
mitted to  invade  at  this  or  any  other  point  the 
empire  of  conscience.  If  we  allow  it  to  interfere 
at  the  point  of  the  sabbath,  we  may  allow  it  to 
interfere  at  any  other  point — say,  the  Trinity,  or 
Baptism,  or  Second  Advent.  We  believe  in  the 
Church,  and  we  believe  in  the  State;  but  we  on 
this  side  the  Atlantic  do  not  believe  in  Church  and 

i8a.xxxi,i.        State,  or  a  State-Church.^     No;   we  put  not  our 

1  How  clear  and  ringing  the  words  of  the  English  exiles  of 
Amsterdam,  published  about  1612  :  "  The  magistrate  is  not  to 


THE   FOURTH   COMMANDMENT.  127 

trust  in  princes,  neither   go  down  to  Egypt  for 
help,  nor  trust  iu  chariots  because  they  are  many, 
nor  in  horsemen  because  they  are  very  strong.    Not  zech.  iv,  6. 
by  might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  my  spirit,  saith 
Jeliovah  of  hosts. 

(6)  Again :  Man  needs  the  sabbath  for  his  re-  Man   Needs 

,.    .  x-r  1       •  T  n  the  Sabbath 

hgious  nature.  He  needs  it  as  a  day  oi  con-  for  his  Re- 
scious,  formal,  stately^  acknowledgment  of  the  tSe^^  ^ 
divine  supremacy.  "Sunday,^'  says  Emerson, 
"is  the  core  of  our  civilization,  dedicated  to 
thought  and  reverence.  It  invites  to  the  noblest 
solitude,  and  to  the  best  society."  Man  needs  it 
as  a  day  on  which  to  dismiss  worldly  cares  and 
look  through  unobstructed  vistas  into  the  opening 
heavens.  An  English  gentleman  was  inspecting 
a  house  in  Newcastle,  with  a  view  of  buying  it. 
The  landlord,  after  having  shown  him  the  prem- 
ises, took  him  to  an  upper  window,  and  remarked  : 
''You  can  see  Durham  Cathedral  from  this  win- 
dow, on  Sundays.''  "  How  is  that  ? "  asked  the 
visitor.  "Because,  on  Sundays,  there  is  no  smoke 
from  the  factory  chimneys."  Ah  !  man  must  have 
a  day  on  which  he  can  retire  to  some  solitude, 
where  his  spirit — 

With  her  best  nurse,  Contemplation,  "Comus." 

May  plume  her  feathers,  and  let  grow  her  wings, 
That,  in  the  various  bustle  of  resort, 
"Were  all  too  ruffled,  and  sometimes  impaired. 

And    how   exquisitely   the   sabbath    meets    man's 

meddle  with  religion,  or  matters  of  conscience,  nor  to  compel 
men  to  this  or  that  form  of  religion,  because  Christ  is  the 
King  and  Lawgiver  of  Church  and  conscience." — "Works  of 
John  Robinson,"  vol.  III.,  page  277. 


128  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

necessity !  The  hushed  bustle  of  life ;  the 
vacated  exchange;  the  closed  factx)ry;  the  bolted 
shop;  the  arrested  engine;  the  attired  popula- 
tion, walking  with  subdued  tread  the  tranquil 
street,  or  strolling  with  chaste  buoyancy  the '  odor- 
ous grove ;  the  open  sanctuary ;  the  subdued,  yet 
blithesome,  hum  of  Sunday-school;  the  voice  of 
prayer  and  Scripture  lesson ;  the  melody  of  hymn 
and  song — these  are  the  angel  voices  which  invite 
us  to  restful  worship.  And  these  the  sabbath 
gives.  Looping  down,  like  celestial  festoons 
from  the  throne  of  God,  at  regularly  recurring 
intervals  along  the  highway  of  life,  each  return- 
ing sabbath  invites  the  caravan  of  humanity  to 
halt  for  a  few  hours,  that  it  may  gaze  up,  with 
worshipful  vision,  into  the  opened  heavens. 

Bright  shadows  of  true  rest  I    Some  shoots  of  bliss  ; 

Heaven  once  a  week  ; 
The  next  world's  gladness  prepossest  in  this ; 

A  day  to  seek 
Eternity  in  time ;  the  steps  by  which 
We  climb  above  all  ages  ;  lamps  that  light 
Man  through  his  heap  of  dark  days  ;  and  the  rich 
And  full  redemption  of  the  whole  week's  flight ! 

The  pulleys  unto  headlong  man  ;  time's  bower ; 

The  narrow  way ; 
Transplanted  paradise  ;  God's  walking  hour ; 

The  cool  o'  the  day  ; 
The  creature's  jubilee  ;  God's  parle  with  dust ; 
Heaven  here ;  man  on  those  hills  of  myrrh  and  flowers ; 
Angels  descending  ;  the  returns  of  trust ; 
A  gleam  of  glory  after  six  days  showers  1 

The  Church's  love-feasts  ;  time's  prerogative, 

And  interest 
Deducted  from  the  whole  ;  the  combs  and  hive 

And  home  of  rest ; 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  129 

The  milky  way  chalkt  with  suns  ;  a  clue, 
That  guides  through  erring  hours ;  and  in  full  story 
A  taste  of  heaven  on  earth  ;  the  pledge  and  cue 
Of  a  full  feast ;  and  the  out-courts  of  glory. 

Thus  man  is  the  basis  of  the  sabbath.  The 
sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not  man  for  the  sab- 
bath. The  sabbath  was  made  for  man  as  much  as 
is  light,  or  air,  or  food. 

(c)  And  what  man    needs   God  has  appointed.  The  Sabbath 
Witness  our   Fourth  Commandment.     True,  this      a p point- 
commandment,  although  a  part  of  the  Decalogue,      ^^^^' 
is  not  to  be  taken  as  though  it  settled  for  all  men, 
and  all  time,  the  question  of  the  origin,  the  basis, 
or  the  authority   of  the  sabbath.     For,  although 
the  Decalogue,  in   its  spirit,  is  for  all  lands  and 
ages,  yet,  in   its   letter,  it  was   evidently   for   the 
Jews.     The  very  preamble  proves   the  assertion : 
"  God  spake  all  these  words,  saying :  I  am  Jehovah  Exod.  xx,  i,  2, 
thy  God,  who  brought   thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,   out   of   the   house   of    bondage.''      Then 
follow    the   Ten    Commandments,    based    on    the 
unique  fact  that  Jehovah  was  the  Covenant  God 
of  Israel.     The  Fifth  Commandment  is  a  striking 
evidence  of  the   Hebrew  character  of   the  Deca- 
logue :  ^'  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother  :  that  Exod.  xx,  12. 
thy  davs  may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  Jeho- 
vah thy  God  giveth   thee'' — that   is,  '^that  thou 
mayst  live  long  in  the  Canaan  whither  thou   art 
going."     And  when  we  turn  to  the  second  account 
of  the  Decalogue  as  recorded  in  Deuteronomy,  we 
find  that  the  very  reason  assigned  for  the  Fourth 
Commandment    is    the   gracious    fact   of    Israel's 


130  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Deutv,  15.  emancipation:  "Thou  shalt  remember  that  thou 
wast  a  servant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  Jehovah 
thy  God  brought  thee  out  thence  by  a  mighty 
liand  and  by  a  stretched -out  arm  :  therefore  Jeho- 
vali  thy  God  commanded  thee  to  keep  the  sabbath 
day/'  Indeed,  Jehovah  directed  Moses  to  teach 
his  people  that  the  sabbath  was  appointed  as  a 
covenant- sign  between  Jehovah  and  Israel,  and,  as 

Exod.  xxxi,  12-  sucli,  a  badge  of  the  Jewish  nationality:  Jehovah 
spake  unto  Moses,  saying :  "  Speak  thou  also  unto 
the  children  of  Israel,  saying.  Verily  ye  shall  keep 
my  sabbaths  :  for  it  is  a  sign  between  me  and  you 
throughout  your  generations ;  that  ye  may  know 
that  I  am  Jehovah  who  sanctify  you."  And  nine 
hundred  years  afterward   the  declaration  is  echoed 

Ezek.  XX,  12.  by  the  Prophet  Ezekiel.  And  when  we  turn  to 
the  New  Testament,  the  Jewish  character  of  the 
Sinaitic  sabbath  becomes  still  more  evident.  It 
is  a  significant  fact  that  the  only  full  twenty- 
four  hours  which  the  Saviour  of  mankind  spent 
in  the  tomb  was  the  seventh  day,  the  sabbath  of 
the  Decalogue,  the  Hebrew  sabbath.  Indeed,  if  we 
base  the  sabbath  on  the  Decalogue,  I  do  not  see  but 
that  we  are  bound  to  keep  Saturday,  and  inflict 

Exod.  xxxi,  15.  the  Mosaic  penalty  of  death  for  sabbath-breaking. 
Moreover,  the  apostolic  disregard  of  the  Mosaic 
sabbath  is  strikingly  significant,  especially  when 
we  remember  that  by  far  the  larger  proportion  of 
the  early  Christians  were  converts  from  heathen- 
ism, and  therefore  needed  special  instruction  in 
the  matter  of  the  sabbath.  The  Apostle  Paul  was 
wont  to  insist  on  a  strict  observance  of  all  practical 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  131 

duties,  often  mentioning  them  in  detail :  and  yet  in 
all  his  extant  letters  there  seems  to  be  but  one  soli- 
tary allusion  to  the  Mosaic  sabbath ;  and  even  then 
he  classifies  it  with  the  ceremonial  observances  which 
had  been  abolished:  '^Let  no  man  judge  you  in  Coi. n, le,  17. 
meat,  or  in  drink,  or  in  respect  of  a  feast  day  or  a 
new  moon  or  a  sabbath  day ;  which  are  a  shadow 
of  the  things  to  come;  but  the  body  is  Christ V^ 
All  this  shows  that  the  Fourth  Commandment,  or 
the  sabbath  as  an  ordinance  in  the  letter,  was  Jew- 
ish ;  and,  as  such,  local  and  temporary.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  sabbath  as  a  necessity,  or  nature's 
sabbath,  is  human;  and  as  such,  as  universal  and 
abiding  as  man.  The  moment  that  the  Son  of 
man — even  the  Lawgiver  greater  than  Moses — 
speaks,  saying,  "The  sabbath  was  made  for  man, 
and  not  man  for  the  sabbath,"  we  feel  that  he 
speaks,  not  as  a  Jew  to  Jews,  but  as  the  Divine 
Man  to  men,  instantly  raising  the  sabbath  from  a 
Jewish  ordinance  to  a  human  necessity.  And  ob- 
serve the  authority  which  Jesus  quotes :  it  is  not 
Moses,  but  Man  :  not  Scripture,  but  Nature.  The 
sabbath  is  in  the  Decalogue ;  but  it  is  in  the  Deca- 
logue because  it  had  been  before  in  nature;  and 
the  Jew  was  a  man.  Thus  Nature  and  Scripture 
are  in  alliance ;  the  one  demanding  a  sabbath,  the 
other  appointing  a  sabbath. 

^  Perhaps  there  is  an  allusion  to  the  sabbath  in  Romans  14  : 
5:  "  One  man  esteemeth  one  day  above  another;  another  es- 
teemeth  every  day  alike.  Let  each  man  be  fully  assured  in 
his  own  mind."  That  is  to  say  :  it  is  a  question  in  casuistry, 
and  each  one  must  decide  it  for  himself,  as  in  the  presence  of 
God. 


132 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 


Man  Greater 
th  an  th  e 
Sabbath. 

Mark  ii,  28. 


Gen  ii,  7 
Gen.  i,  2( 
Luke  iii,  as, 
Rom.  V 


17. 


Ps.  viii.  5-8. 


2.  But  Christ's  doctrine  of  the  sabbath  teaches 
a  second  lesson — namely,  this:  Man  is  greater  than 
the  sabbath :  "  So  that  {therefore),  the  Son  of  man 
is  lord  even  of  the  sabbath.''     Observe  this  phrase 
— "  The  Son   of  man,"     Without  staying  to  un- 
fold this  phrase  with  theological  accuracy,  let  it  be 
enough  that  I  use  it  as  expressing,  in  outline,  the 
truth  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  representative  and 
exemplar  of  humanity,  the  archetypal  Man.     As 
Divine,  or  the  Son  of  God,  he  was,  of  course,  the 
lord  of  the  sabbath.     The  point  is  that  he  is  lord 
of  the  sabbath  as  human,  as  the  Son  of  man  :  '^The 
sabbath  was   made  for  man  ;    so  that  (therefore), 
the  Son  of  man  is  lord  even  of  the  sabbath."     In 
other  words,  the  sabbath  is  to  be  used  as  a  means, 
not  as  an  end.     This  the  rabbins  could  not  under- 
stand.    They  utterly  failed  to  grasp  this  majestic 
word — "  Man."  For  man  is  man  :  not  because  he  is 
strong — the  elephant  is  strong ;  not  because  he  is 
ingenious — the  beaver  is  ingenious;  not  because  he 
is  affectionate — the   dog    is   affectionate.     Man  is 
man  because  he  is  God's  inbreathing,  God's  image, 
God's   son.     As   such,    man    is   God's   heir,   and 
Christ's  joint-heir,  and  so  the  lord  of  all. 

Thou  hast  made  him  but  little  lower  than  Elohim, 

And  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honour. 

Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works  of  thy 

hands ; 
Thou  hast  put  all  things  under  his  feet : 
All  sheep  and  oxen, 
Tea,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  ; 
The  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
Whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths  of  the  seas. 

That  is  to  sav  :  Man,  as  God's  son  and  imao^eand 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  133 

representative,  is  the  end,  and  the  sabbath,  like 
every  otlier  ordinance,  is  a  means.  He  is  an  im- 
mortal being,  outliving  institutions  and  economies 
and  aeons,  capable  of  carrying  a  heaven  within  him, 
God's  own  image  and  son.  Man  is  more  sacred 
than  ordinances.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  die  for  ordi- 
nances ;  Jesus  Christ  died  for  man.  The  sabbath 
is  not  sacred  in  itself;  it  is  sacred  because  man  is 
sacred.  Hence,  man  is  lord  of  the  sabbath.  And 
in  accordance  with  this  principle  Jesus  Christ  him- 
self ever  acted.  For  example  :  On  a  certain  occa-  Matt,  xu,  i-a. 
sion  the  Pharisees  charged  his  disciples  with  sab- 
bath-breaking, because,  as  they  passed  through  the 
cornfields  on  a  sabbath,  they  plucked  in  their  hun- 
ger some  of  the  ears,  rubbing  them  in  their  hands, 
and  eating.  Our  Lord  makes  defense  by  a  three- 
fold citation  from  their  own  Scriptures.  First,  he 
reminds  them  of  the  case  of  King  David:  ^^  Have  isam.  xxi,i-«. 
ye  not  read  what  David  did,  when  he  was  an  hun- 
gered and  they  that  were  with  him;  how  he  entered 
into  the  house  of  God,  and  did  eat  the  shewbread, 
which  it  was  not  lawful  for  him  to  eat,  neither  for 
them  that  were  with  him,  but  only  for  the  priests? '^ 
Our  Lord's  argument  is  this :  "  What,  though  a 
law  of  Moses  forbids  laymen  eating  of  the  priests' 
shewbread  ?  David  and  his  comrades  were  men, 
and  they  were  hungry,  and  man  is  greater  than 
rules."  Next  he  reminds  them  of  the  case  of  their 
own  priests  :  ''  Or  have  ye  not  read  in  the  law,  how 
that  on  the  sabbath  day  the  priests  in  the  temple 
profane  the  sabbath,  and  are  guiltless  ?  But  I  say 
unto  you,  that  one  greater  than  the  temple  is  here.'' 
12 


134  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

And  our  Lord's  argument  is  this  :  "  What,  though 
the  law  forbids  all  manner  of  work  on  tlie  seventh 
■  day?  The  priests,  in  carrying  on  their  ministra- 
tions, are  compelled  to  toil  on  the  sabbath,  yet,  even 
ye  yourselves  do  not  think  that  they  are  to  blame  ; 
for  ye  need  their  services ;  and  man,  whose  repre- 
sentative I  am,  is  greater  than  temple  and  sabbath/' 
Once  more  he  reminds  them  of  a  weighty  saying 

Hosea  ri,  6.  of  oue  of  their  own  prophets  :  "  But  if  ye  had 
known  what  this  meaneth,  I  desire  mercy  and  not 
sacrifice,  ye  would  not  have  condemned  the  guilt- 
less." And  our  Lord's  argument  is  this :  "  Hosea 
himself  declares  that  when  mercy  comes  into  col- 
lision with  ritual,  so  that  the  one  or  the  other  must 
yield,  God  prefers  the  mercy  to  the  ritual ;  now  if 
ye  had  really  understood  this  saying  of  Hosea,  ye 
never  would  have  condemned  my  disciples  for  sat- 
isfying their  hunger  on  the  sabbath  ;  for,  as  man  is 
greater  than  institutions,  so  mercy  is  greater  than 
rubric."  Then  follows  the  Lord's  own  definition 
of  the  sabbath  :  "  The  sabbath  was  made  for  man, 
and  not  man  for  the  sabbath  ;  so  that  the  Son  of 
man    is  lord  even  of  the  sabbath."     Again  :  On 

Matt,  xii,  9-14.     another  sabbath,  as  he  was  teach  in o^  in  one  of  the 

Mark  iii,  1-6.  «    A    ti  i 

Luke  vi, 6-11.  synagogues  of  Galilee,  a  man  was  present  whose 
rigiit  hand  was  withered.  As  usual,  Pharisees 
were  watching  him,  whether  he  would  heal  on  the 
sabbath,  that  they  might  find  how  to  accuse  him. 
But  he  knew  their  thoughts ;  and  he  said  to 
the  man  who  had  his  hand  withered.  Rise  up, 
and  stand  forth.  And  he  arose,  and  stood 
forth.      And  Jesus  said   unto  them,  I  ask   you, 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  135 

is   it  lawful  on   the   sabbath   to  do   good,   or  to 

do  harm?  to  save  a  life,  or  to  destroy  it?     But 

they  held  their  peace.     And  he  said  unto  them, 

What  man  shall  there  be  of  you,  that  shall  have 

one  sheep,  and  if  this  fall  into  a  pit  on  the  sabbath 

day,  will  he  not  lay  hold  on  it,  and  lift  it  out  ? 

How  much  then  is  a  man  of  more  value  than  a 

sheep  ?     Wherefore  it  is  lawful  to  do  good  on  the 

sabbath   day.     And   when   he  had   looked  round 

"about  on  them  with  auger,  being  grieved  at  the 

hardening  of  their  heart,  he  saith  unto  the  man, 

Stretch  forth  thy  hand.     And  he  stretched  it  forth  : 

and   his  hand  w^as  restored.     And  the  Pharisees 

were    filled    with    madness,   and   went   out,   and 

straightway    with    the    Herodians    took    counsel 

against  him,  how  they  might  destroy  him.    Again: 

On  another  sabbath,  Jesus  was  teaching  in  one  of    Luke  xUi,  ia-17. 

the   synagogues   of    the   Perea.     And    behold,   a 

woman   who   had    a   spirit  of  infirmity  eighteen 

years;   and    she  was   bowed   together,  and  could 

in   no   wise    lift   herself  up.      And    when   Jesus 

saw  her,  he  called  her,  and  said  to  her,  Woman, 

thou     art     loosed    from    thine    infirmity.      And 

he   laid    his    hands   upon    her:   and    immediately 

she  was  made  straight,  and  glorified  God.     And 

the   ruler  of  the   synagogue,   being  moved   with 

indio^uation  because  Jesus  had  healed  on  the  sab- 

bath,  answered  and  said  to  the  multiiude,  There 

are  six  days  in  which  men  ought  to  work :  in  them 

therefore  come  and  be  healed,  and  not  on  the  day 

of  the  sabbath.     But  the  Lord  answered  him,  and 

said,  Ye  hypocrites,  doth  not  each  one  of  you  on 


136  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  sabbath  loose  his  ox  or  his  ass  from  the  stall, 
and  lead  him  away  to  watering  ?  And  ought  nut 
this  woman,  being  a  daughter  of  Abraham,  whom 
Satan  hath  bound,  lo,  these  eighteen  years,  to  have 
been  loosed  from  this  bond  on  the  day  of  the  sab- 
bath? And  as  he  said  these  things,  all  his  adversa- 
hMkexiT,  1-6.  ries  were  put  to  shame.  Again:  On  still  another 
sabbath  Jesus  was  dining  with  one  of  the  rulers  of 
the  Pharisees;  and  they  were  still  watching  him. 
And  behold,  a  certain  man  was  present  who  had 
the  dropsy.  And  Jesus  answering  spake  unto  the 
lawyers  and  Pharisees,  saying,  Is  it  lawful  to  heal 
on  the  sabbath  or  not  ?  But  they  held  their  peace. 
And  he  took  him,  and  healed  him,  and  let  him  go. 
And  he  said  unto  them.  Which  of  you  shall  have 
an  ass  or  an  ox  fallen  into  a  well,  and  will  not 
straightway  draw  him  up  on  a  sabbath  day?  And 
they  could  not  answer  again  unto  these  things. 
Once  more :  On  a  certain  occasion,  when  Jesus 
was  in  Jerusalem,  he  found  lying  by  the  pool  of 
Bethesda  an  unfortunate  man  who  had  been  thirty 
and  eight  years  in  his  infirmity  ;  and  he  said  unto 
him,  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed,  and  walk.  And 
straightway  the  man  was  made  whole,  and  took  up 
his  bed  and  walked.  But  it  happened  that  the  day 
this  miracle  was  wrought  was  the  sabbath.  The 
Pharisees  therefore  were  horror-struck,  and  said  to 
the  man  who  had  been  cured.  It  is  the  sabbath, 
and  it  is  not  lawful  for  thee  to  take  up  thy  bed. 
Jesus,  in  self- vindication,  replied  :  My  Father 
worketh  even  until  now,  and  I  work.  For  this 
cause  therefore  the  Jews  souo;ht  the  more  to  kill 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  137 

him,  because  he  did  these  tilings  on  the  sabbath; 
Mouths  afterward,  in  referring  to  this  cure,  he 
justified  himself  on  the  ground  that  ritual  must  John  vii,  21-24. 
yield  to  mercy,  ordinance  to  man :  I  did  one 
work,  and  ye  all  marvel  because  thereof.  Moses 
hath  given  you  circumcision ;  and  on  the  sabbath 
ye  circumcise  a  man ;  if  a  man  receiveth  circum- 
cision on  the  sabbath,  that  the  law  of  Moses  may 
not  be  broken,  are  ye  wroth  with  me,  because  I 
made  a  man  every  whit  whole  on  the  sabbath  ? 
In  other  words :  If  the  sabbath  must  yield  to 
man  in  the  case  of  the  mutilating  rite  of  circum- 
cision, how  much  more  ought  the  sabbath  to  yield 
to  man  in  the  case  of  restoring  soundness  to  his 
whole  body?  In  view,  then,  of  these  repeated 
instances  of  Christ's  teaching  and  practice,  how 
resistless  the  conviction  that  he  believed  that  man 
is  greater  than  the  sabbath.  And  yet  he  was  very 
far  from  meaning  to  lessen  the  obligation  of  the 
sabbath :  he  only  meant  to  emancipate  the  sabbath 
from  the  thrall  of  Pharisaic  sanctimoniousness, 
superstition,  and  gloom.  Instead  of  destroying 
the  sabbath,  he  brought  out  its  real  meaning,  as 
being  a  day  of  rest  and  gladness ;  and  so  he  kept 
in  deepest  sense  the  sabbath.  And  just  because 
the  Sou  of  mau  disenthrals  the  Jewish  seventh 
day,  my  Christian  freedom  binds  me  to  keep  the 
sabbath  even  more  conscientiously  than  did  the 
ancient  Jew.  It  is  easier  to  be  a  Hebrew  than  a 
Christian.  May  the  God  of  our  fathers  evermore 
avert  the  day  when  our  American  sabbath  degener- 
ates into  the  European ! 


138  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Such,  it  seems  to  me,  is  Christ's  doctrhie  of  the 

sabbath.     And  if  any  one  has  the  right  to  define 

the  sabbath,  it  is  Clirist  himself,  even  that  Son  of 

man  who  is  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath. 

True  Method       IV.  From  what  has  been  said,  we  cannot  fail 

the  Sab^^*^^  to  infer  the  true  method  of  keeping  the  sabbath, 

bath.  j^  jg  ^Q  ^Q  j,gp^  -jj  gjj^}-^  ^  ^^^y  ^g  ^y[Y[  unfohl  man 

heavenward  the  most  thoroughly,  totally,  symmetri- 
cally. The  sabbath  being  made  for  man,  he  must 
use  it  religiously ;  for  the  faculty  of  worship  is 
man's  chief  definition.  The  sabbath  must  be  kept 
in  homage  of  God,  in  the  study  of  his  truth  and 
character  and  will,  in  the  spirit  of  Avorship — private 
and  public.  But  full  unfolding  of  man's  spiritual 
nature  is  possible  only  in  the  sphere  of  edification 
— that  is,  society  building.  The  sabbath  summons 
man  to  conjugate  life  in  a  new  mood  and  tense; 
but  still  in  the  active  voice.  And  here  the  Son  of, 
man  is  our  teacher  and  blessed  model.  How  many, 
of  his  works  of  mercy  were  wrought  on  the  sabbath 
day  !  And  what  is  man's  office  in  this  fallen,  sor- 
rowful world,  but  a  ministry  of  healing?  And 
healing,  or  edification,  is  the  highest  form  of  wor- 
ship. Nothing  can  take  the  place  of  it.  True,  it 
is  our  solemn  duty  to  engage  in  forms  of  devotion, 
ps.  xiii,  4.  going  with  the  throng  to  the  house  of  God,  with 

the  voice  of  joy  and  praise,  a  multitude  keeping 
holy  day.  Beware  of  the  pantheistic  sentimentalism 
which  teaches  that  "  religion  demands  no  particular 
act?,  forms,  or  modes  of  thought ;  man's  plowing  is 
as  holy  as  his  praying,  his  daily  bread  as  the  smoke 
of  his  sacrifice,  his  home  as  sacred  as  his  temple ; 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  139 

liis  weekday  and  his  sabbath  are  alike  God's  day." 
No ;  I  believe  in  sabbaths,  and  churches,  and  ser- 
mons, and  hymns,  and  prayers,  and  sacraments. 
Without  these,  and  such  as  these,  I  believe  that 
personal  godliness  would  speedily  be  swept  away 
from  the  face  of  the  earth.^  No,  young  gentle- 
men^  you  cannot  afford  to  dispense  with  acts  of 
devotion.  For  God  has  endowed  you  with  the 
instinct  of  worship;  and  you  must  give  this 
instinct  fair  scope.  I  know  indeed  that  many 
of  you  are  subjected  to  severe  mental  pressure 
during  the  week,  and  that,  as  a  result,  you  are 
tempted  either  to  continue  your  studies  on  Sunday, 
or  else  to  abandon  yourselves  wholly  to  rest  and 
recreation.  But  I  assure  you  that  the  best  rest  you 
can  possibly  have  is  in  worshiping  Almighty  God, 
and  the  gravest  peril  you  can  encounter  is  the 
neglect  to  adore  him.  "Sunday,"  says  the  poet 
Longfellow,  "is  the  golden  clasp  that  binds  to- 
gether the  volume  of  the  week."  And  the  busy 
Sir  Matthew  Hale  quaintly  sings  : 

A  sabbath  well  spent  Sir  Matthew 

Brings  a  week  of  content,  Hale. 

With  joy  for  the  toils  of  to-morrow. 
A  sabbath  profaned, 
Whatsoe'er  may  be  gained. 

Is  a  sure  forerunner  of  sorrow. 

^Horace  Bushnell,  in  a  striking  sermon,  entitled,  "Routine 
Observance  Indispensable,"  shows,  in  his  own  masterly  way, 
"this  great  law  of  practical  Christian  living" — namely,  "That 
we  need  to  keep  fixed  times,  or  appointed  rounds  of  observance, 
as  truly  as  to  be  in  holy  impulse  ;  to  have  prescribed  periods  in 
duty,  as  truly  as  to  have  a  spirit  of  duty  ;  to  be  in  the  drill  of 
observance,  as  well  as  in  the  liberty'  of  faith." 


140  THE    TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

No  man  in  the  world  of  science  has  ever  stood 
higher,  or  ever  was  busier  than  Michael  Faraday ; 
and  Michael  Faraday  never  failed  to  worship  every 
Sunday  in  his  little  Sandemanian  chapel.  Never- 
theless, morally  indispensable  as  it  is  that  you 
should  regularly  attend  divine  service,  this,  after  all, 
is  but  a  minor  part  of  worship.  Is  not  this  the 
fast — the  liturgy — that  Jehovah  chooses:  to  loose 
the  bonds  of  wickedness,  to  undo  the  bands  of  the 
yoke,  to  let  the  oppressed  go  free,  to  deal  thy  bread 
to  the  hungry,  to  bring  the  poor  that  are  cast  out 
to  thy  house,  to  clothe  the  naked?  No  one  truly 
keeps  the  sabbath  unless  he  keep  it  as  the  Divine 
Acts X, 08.  Man  kept  it:  and  he  went  about  doing  good,  and 

healing  all  that  were  oppressed  of  the  devil.  In- 
deed, I  cannot  conceive  how  a  young  man  can  un- 
fold himself  more  thoroughly  or  more  symmetric^ 
ally  than  by  devoting  himself  vigorously  to  study 
during  the  week,  and  then  setting  apart  Sunday  as 
a  day  of  restful  worship,  first  praising  God  in  his 
sanctuary,  and  then  praising  him  in  works  of 
mercy,  visiting  the  sick,  comforting  the  sorrowful, 
teaching  the  ignorant,  reclaiming  the  outcast.  May 
the  good  Lord  make  every  one  of  you  a  wise 
almoner  of  his  grace!  So  shall  you  realize  his 
own  blessed  promise : 

Isa.  Iviii  13  14.       ^^  thou  turn  away  thy  foot  from  the  sabbath, 
From  doing  thy  pleasure  on  my  holy  day ; 
And  call  the  sabbath  a  delight, 
The  holy  of  Jehovah  honourable ; 
And  shalt  honour  it,  not  doing  thine  own  ways, 
Nor  finding  thine  own  pleasure,  nor  speaking  thine  own 
words : 


THE    FOURTH    COMMA^'DMENT.  141 

Then  shalt  thou  delight  thyself  in  Jehovah  ; 

And  I  will  make  thee  to  ride  upon  the  high  places  of  the 

earth ; 
And  I  will  feed  thee  with  the  heritage  of  Jacob  thy  father  : 
For  the  mouth  of  Jehovah  hath  spoken  it. 

The  consideration  of  this  great  topic  is  opportune.   Secret  of  the 
The   sabbath  question    is    one   of    the    questions      Victory, 
of  the  age,  which  thoughtful  philanthropists  must 
look  squarely  in  the  face.     The  foe  is  keen  and 
powerful.     Before  such  an  enemy  the  question  is 
not  to  be  settled  by  ipse  dixits,  or  citations  of  an- 
cestral creeds.     If  we  w^ould  win  the  fight,  we  must 
wage  battle  on  solid,  abiding  ground.     How,  then, 
shall  we  meet  the  question?     I  know  no  better  way 
than  that  in  which  the  Lord  of  the  sabbath  has  him- 
self met  it :  *'  The  sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  Mark  ii,  28. 
not  man  for  the  sabbath."     The  basis  of  the  sab- 
bath is  not  God's  outward,  graven  letter,  but  uian's 
inward,  personal  need.     Meet  the  foe  on  the  ground 
of  the  Mosaic  ordinance,  and  you  are  bound  to 
lose:  for  Mosaism  was  local  and  transient.     Meet 
the  foe  on  the  ground  of  man's  need,  and  you  are  / 
bound  to  win ;  for  you  have  Nature  and  Nature's 
Lord  on  your  side. 

V.  Before  closing  our  study,  it  will  be  proper  The  Change 
to  say  a  few  words  touching  the  change  of  the  day \o  Sun- 
sabbath  from  the  seventli  day  to  tlie  first — from      ^^y- 

Saturday  to  Sundav.     How  was  this  tremendous 

»  •  •* 

change  brought  about ?^     Tremendous,  I  say,  for, 

1 "  The  first  Christian  writer  who  speaks  of  the  first  day  of 
the  week  as  Sunday  is  Justin  Martyr  in  the  second  century. 
His  words  are  as  follows  :  '  On  the  day  called  Sunday,  all  who 
live  in  cities  or  in  the  country  gather  together  to  one  place,  and 


142  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

considering  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  the  change 

was  nothing  less  than  stupendous.  When  we  re- 
Gen.  ii,i-3.        member   that  the   seventh  day  had   received    the 

august  sanction  of  the  Creator's  own  example  in 
Exod.  XX,  8-11.  the   very  beginning ;    that  the  commandment  to 

keep  the  seventh  day  holy,  proclaimed  as  it  had 
Exod.  xix.  been  amid  the  trumpet  clangs  and  lightnings  and 

divinely-ordained  barricades  of  quaking  Sinai,  was 

distinctly  based  on  the  Creator's  own  example  in 
Exod.  xxxi,  16,  Eden ;  that  the  keeping  of  the  seventh  day  had 

been  expressly  set  forth  as  one  of  the  distinctive 
i8a.iviii.  13,  u.    badges  of  the  Jewish  nationality  ;  that  the  keeping 

the  memoirs  of  the  apostles  or  the  writings  of  the  prophets  are 
read,  as  long  as  time  permits ;  then,  when  the  reader  has 
ceased,  the  president  verbally  instructs  and  exhorts  to  the  imi- 
tation of  these  good  things.  Then  we  all  rise  together  and 
pray,  and,  when  our  prayer  is  ended,  bread  and  wine  and 
water  are  brought,  and  the  president  in  like  manner  offers 
prayers  and  thanksgiving,  according  to  his  ability,  and  the 
people  assent,  saying,  Amen ;  and  there  is  a  distribution  to 
each,  and  a  participation  of  that  over  which  thanks  have  been 
given,  and  to  those  who  are  absent  a  portion  is  sent  by  the 
deacons.  And  they  who  are  well  to  do,  and  willing,  give  what 
each  thinks  fit ;  and  what  is  collected  is  deposited  with  the 
president,  who  succours  the  orphans  and  widows,  and  those 
who,  through  sickness  or  any  other  cause,  are  in  want,  and 
those  who  are  in  bonds,  and  the  strangers  sojourning  among 
us,  and  in  a  word,  takes  care  of  all  who  are  in  need.  But 
Sunday  is  the  day  on  which  we  all  hold  our  common  assembly, 
because  it  is  the  first  day  on  which  God,  having  wrought  a 
change  in  the*  darkness  and  matter,  made  the  world ;  and 
Jesus  Christ  our  Saviour  on  the  same  day  rose  from  the  dead. 
For  he  was  crucified  on  the  day  before  that  of  Saturn  (Satur- 
day) ;  and  on  the  day  after  that  of  Saturn,  which  is  the  day 
of  the  Sun  (Sunday),  having  appeared  to  his  apostles  and  dis- 
ciples, he  taught  them  these  things,  which  we  have  submitted 
to  you  also  for  your  consideration.'  " — "  First  Apology  of  Jus- 
tin Martyr,"  chapter  Ixvii. 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  143 

the  seventh  day  had  been  promised  the  most 
glorious  rewards,  and  that  the  breaking  the  seventh  Exoa.  xxxi,  u, 
day  had  been  threatened  with  the  direst  penalties, 
even  death  itself;  that  the  Hebrew  people,  with 
here  and  there  an  exception  in  times  of  apostasy, 
had  always  scrupulously  observed  the  seventh  day 
as  the  divinely-appointed  sabbath ;  that  this  observ- 
ance had  never  been  so  scrupulous  as  in  the  days 
of  Jesus  Christ  himself,  it  being,  in  fact,  the  very 
point  at  which  he  came  into  oftenest  and  sharpest 
collision  with  his  adversaries,  and  which  was  one 
of  the  precipitating  causes  of  his  premature  death ; 
that  the  saintly  women  who  had  bravely  stood  by  Luke  xxiu,  55, 
the  cross,  and  were  yearning  to  minister  to  their 
dead  Lord  the  last  sepulchral  honors,  yet  scrupu- 
lously refrained  from  doing  so  because  the  seventh 
day  was  over  the  land ;  that  the  apostles  were 
Jews,  and  as  such  shared  in  the  intense  conserva- 
tism and  traditionalism  of  their  race;  that  there  is 
no  record  of  any  divine  command  to  substitute  the 
first  day  for  the  seventh  ; — when  we  remember  all 
tbis,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  change  from 
Saturday  to  Sunday  was,  under  the  circumstances, 
nothing  less  than  a  tremendous  revolution.  But 
revolutions  do  not  take  place  without  causes.  How, 
then,  will  you  account  for  this  stupendous  revolu- 
tion ?  It  is  a  fair  question  for  the  philosophical 
historian  to  ask.  Here  is  a  venerable,  sacred  insti- 
tution, believed  to  be  hallowed  by  the  Creator's 
own  example  in  Eden,  solemnly  enjoined  amid  the 
thunders  of  Sinai,  distinctly  set  apart  as  one  of 
the  chief  signs  that  Israel  was  Jehovah's  chosen, 


144  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

covenanted  people,  majestically  buttressed  by 
loftiest  promises  in  case  of  observance  and  by 
direst  threats  in  case  of  non-observance,  freighted 
with  the  solemn  weight  of  fifteen  centuries  of 
sacred  associations  and  scrupulous  observance — 
suddenly  falling  into  disuse,  and  presently  sup- 
planted by  another  day,  which  to  this  Year  of 
Grace  has  held  its  own  amid  the  throes  of  eighteen 
hundred  years.  How  will  you  account  for  this 
tremendous  revolution?  It  is,  I  repeat,  a  fair 
question  for  the  philosophical  historian  to  ask. 
And  the  philosophical  historian  knows  the  answer. 
Jesus  the  Nazarene  has  been  crucified.  All  through 
the  seventh  day,  or  Hebrew  sabbath,  he  has  lain  in 
Joseph's  tomb.  In  that  tomb,  amid  solitude  and 
darkness  and  grave-clothes,  he  has  grappled  in 
mortal  duel  with  the  King  of  Death,  and  has 
thrown  him  and  shivered  his  sceptre.  At  the  close 
Matt,  xxviii,  1.  of  that  awful  scvcuth  day,  as  it  begins  to  dawn 
toward  the  first  day  of  the  week,  he  rises  triumphant 
from  the  dead.  And  by  and  in  the  very  fact  of 
this  triumphant  rising,  he  henceforth  and  for  ever- 
more emblazons  the  first  day  of  the  week  as  his 
own  royal,  supernal  day,  even  Time's  first  true 
Sabbath.  Ah,  the  primitive  Church  needed  no 
command !  Conscious  of  their  need  of  a  sabbath, 
and  aware  that  the  Hebrew  seventh  day,  like  the 
other  institutions  of  the  Sinaitic  covenant,  had 
shared  Christ's  sepulchre,  but  not  Christ's  resurrec- 
tion, it  was  enough  for  them  and  it  is  enough  for 
us  that  he  who  himself  was  the  Lord  of  the  sab- 
bath, and  greater  than  Eden  and  Sinai,  had  risen 


THE    FOURTH    COMMANDMENT.  145 

on  Sunday.  Aye,  Saturday  was  the  sabbath  of 
nature,  Sunday  is  the  sabbath  of  grace ;  Saturday 
the  sabbath  of  a  rejected,  executed,  entombed  Jesus, 
Sunday  the  sabbath  of  a  risen,  exalted,  triumphant 
Christ;  Saturday  Creator's  day,  Sunday  Re- 
deemer's day. 

Hail  the  Lord  of  earth  and  heaven  I  Charles  Wesley. 

Praise  to  thee  by  both  be  given  ; 
Thee  we  greet  triumphant  now, 
Hail  I  the  resurrection  thou  I 

VI.  Lastly:  Jesus  Christ  himself  is  our  Sab-  Jesus   Christ 
bath,  alike  its  origin,  its  meaning,  and  its  end.     In      bath. 
fact,  the  final  cause  of  the  sabbath  is  to  sabbatize 
each   day   and   make  all   life  sacramental.     And 
Jesus  Christ  being  our  true  sabbath,  Jesus  Christ  is 
also  our  true  rest,  even  the  spirit's  everlasting  Eden. 
May  it  be  for  us  all  evermore  to  be  in  the  Lord's  Rev.  i,  lo. 
own  Spirit  on  the  Lord's  own  day.     So  shall  we 
keep  his  sabbath  as  a  resurrection  festival.     Why  Luke  xxiv,  5, 6. 
seek  ye  the  living  one  among  the  dead  ?     He  is  not 
in  the  tomb  ;  he  has  risen.     Ours  is  not  the  Church 
of  the  Sepulchre :  ours  is  the  Church  of  the  Resur- 
rection.    "Well  then  may  the  Church  of  the  Resur- 
rection take  the  day  of  her  Lord's  rising  as  ker 
sabbath.     May  it  be  for  us  all  to  know  the  power  Phii.  m,  10.     . 
of  his  resurrection,  and  so  to  enter  the  sabbath  rest  Heb.  iv,  9. 
which  remaineth  for  his  people. 

Grant,  we  beseech  thee,  Almighty  God,  that  like  as  we  do  Collect- 
believe  thy  only  begotten  Son  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  have 
ascended  into  the  heavens ;  so  we  may  also  in  heart  and  mind 
thither  ascend,  and  with  him  continually  dwell,  who  liveth  and 
reigneth  with  thee  and  the  Holy  Ghost,  one  God,  world  with- 
out end.     Amen. 

13 


VI. 

THE  FIFTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother:  that  thy  days 
may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  Jehovah  thy  God 
giveth  thee. 

Exodus  XX,  12. 


YI. 

THE  FIFTH  COMMANDMENT. 

The  division  of  the  Ten  Commandments  into  The   Two 
two  tables — a  table  of  duties  to  God  and  a  table  of 
duties  to  man — ^is  of  an  immemorial  antiquity.     It 
was  probably  suggested  by  our  Lord^s  answer  to 
the  lawyer^s  question :  A  certain  scribe  came  and  Matt,  xxii,  35- 

111.  .  i.ikM-  !•!       .         1  40;  Mark  xii, 

asked  him,  saying,  "Master,  which  is  the  great  28-31. 
commandment  in  the  law?"  The  Divine  Man  re- 
plies :  "  Hear,  O  Israel ;  The  Lord  our  God,  the 
Lord  is  one :  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength  :  this 
is  the  great  and  first  commandment.  And  a  second 
like  unto  it  is  this.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself.  There  is  none  other  commandment 
greater  than  these:  on  these  two  commandments 
liangeth  the  whole  law,  and  the  prophets."  Thus 
love  to  God  and  love  to  man  mutually  involve 
each  other.  In  fact,  instead  of  allowing  the  vulgar 
distinction  between  religion  and  morality,  the  Dec- 
alogue fuses  them  into  one.  According  to  the  first 
table,  which  announces  our  duties  to  God,  religion  "^ 

is  morality  looking  Godward ;  according  to  the 
second  table,  which  announces  our  duties  to  man, 
morality  is  religion  looking  manward.  And  the 
Fifth  Commandment  is  the  link  joining  these  two 

149 


150 


THE   TEX   CO^fMANDMENTS. 


Exod.  XX,  12. 


The    Divine 
Mandate. 


Not  an  Edict, 
but  a  Prin- 


ciple. 


tables,  looking  both  Godward  and  manward.  As 
such  it  is  the  centrepiece  of  the  Decalogue,  the 
keystone  of  the  Sinaitic  arch. 

And  now  we  are  ready  for  the  Fifth  Command- 
ment : — 

Hrniour  thy  father  and  thy  mother :  that  thy  days 
may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  Jehovah  thy  God 
giveth  thee. 

I.  In  studying  the  Fifth  Commandment,  pon- 
der, first,  the  divine  mandate :  Honour  thy  fathefi* 
and  thy  mother, 

1.  In  pondering  this  mandate,  observe,  first,  that 
our  commandment  is  not  an  arbitrary  edict :  it  is  a 
natural  principle,  having  its  constitutional  basis  in 
the  very  essence  of  the  relation  which  subsists 
between  parents  and  children.  True,  we  might 
legitimately  enough  ground  this  duty  of  filial  rev- 
erence on  the  basis  of  aesthetic  propriety,  or  of 
justness,  or  of  the  personal  worth  of  the  parent 
himself.  But  resistless  as  these  motives  to  filial 
devotion  are,   I   believe  that  our  commandment 


rests  on  a  basis  more  fundamental.  That  basis  is 
this  :  The  parent  is  to  his  child,  in  a  certain  sense, 
the  representative  and  symbol  of  God.  It  is  a  sig- 
nificant fact  that  the  Romans  denoted  duti  fulness  to 
the  gods  and  dutiful ness  to  parents  by  the  same 
word — namely,  pietas}      How   often   Virgil   de- 

^  In  fact,  they  personfied  pietas  as  a  goddess.  Acilius  Glabrio 
reared  a  temple  to  her  honor,  on  the  spot  where  a  woman  had 
nursed  with  her  own  milk  her  aged  father,  whom  the  senate 
had  ordered  to  be  imprisoned  and  starved.  The  goddess  is 
represented  on  Roman  coins  as  a  matron,  throwing  incense 
upon  au  altar,  and  her  attributes  are  a  stork  and  children. 


THE   FIFTH    COMMAXDMENT. 


151 


scribes  the  dutiful  son  of  Anchises  as  piiis  ^neas! 
I  believe,  young  gentlemen,  that  when  a  son  is 
disobedient  to  his  parents,  he  is  guilty  of  some- 
thing  more  than""undutifurness  T  and  that  when 
he  insults  them,  he  is  guilty  of  somelEmg  more 
than  insolence;  and  that  when  he  is  unkind  to 
them,  he  is  guilty  of  something  more  than 
cruelty;  and  that  when  he  wrongs  them,  he  is 
guilty  of  something  more  than  injustice.  There 
is  in  each  of  these  acts  a  peculiar  element  of  wick- 
edness, perfectly  distinguishable  from  that  which 
gives  to  each  separate  act  its  specific  title.  I  think 
that  every  right-minded  person  intuitively  discrimi- 
nates between  the  wronging  our  neighbors  and  the 
wronging  our  parents ;  so  that,  while  he  describes 
the  first  wrong  as  wicked,  he  instinctively  describes 
the  second  wrong  as  impious.  This  it  is  which 
gives  the  terrific  fascination  to  such  tragedies  as 
Orestes  and  Oedipus  and  Lear :  listen  to  the  King 
of  Britain  : — 

Ingratitude,  thou  marble-hearted  fiend, 

More  hideous  when  thou  show'st  thee  in  a  child 

Than  the  sea-monster  I 

and  again : — 

How  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is 
To  have  a  thankless  child  ! — Away,  away  I 

It  is  not  enough,  then,  to  say  that  it  is  proper,  or 
beautiful,  or  even  just,  that  we  honor  our  parents. 
For  this  duty  is  absolutely  binding  in  itself.  Let 
me  illustrate  from  an  ancient  usage.  The  Phari- 
sees had  a  custom,  founded  on  rabbinic  tradition, 
of  refusing  in  certain  cases  to  assist  their  needy 


'King    Lear," 
I.,  4. 


■King    Lear,' 
L,4. 


Matt.    X-,    .S-6; 
Mark  vii,  9-13. 


152  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

parents ;  and  this  on  the  ground  that  what  they 
owned  was  already  consecrated  to  God,  and  hence 
they  claimed  that  they  were  released  from  the  duty 
of  maintaining  their  parents :  it  was  enough  for 
them  to  exclaim,  "  Corban  ! '' — that  is,  "  Already 
devoted ! "  But  the  divine  Searcher  of  human 
hearts  pointed  out  the  impiety  which  lurked  beneath 
this  cloak  of  sanctity  by  affirming  in  substance  that, 
while  it  was  their  duty  to  contribute  of  their  re- 
sources to  the  Lord's  treasury,  yet  the  specific  com- 
mandment,— Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother, — 
and  the  duty  involved  in  it  of  maintaining  them,  was 
of  the  nature  of  an  antecedent,  fundamental  obli- 
gation, and  never  could  be  dispensed  with  to  make 
room  for  a  subsequent,  incidental  duty.  In  like 
manner,  the  Apostle  Paul,  addressing  children,  says : 
Eph.  vi,  1.  "  Obey  your  parents  in  the  Lord  :  for  this  is  right" 

— that  is,  right  inherently  and  absolutely,  not  merely 
incidentally  or  relatively.  And  then  again  to  his 
1  Tim.  V,  4.  spiritual  son  Timothy  :  "  If  any  widow  hath  chil- 
dren or  grandchildren,  let  them  learn  first  to  shew 
piety  toward  their  own  family,  and  to  requite 
their  parents  :  for  this  is  acceptable  in  the  sight  of 
God."  How  beautiful  and  divinely  imperative  the 
Luke  ii,  41-52.  example  of  our  blessed  Lord  himself,  when,  hav- 
ing returned  from  his  child  visit  to  the  temple,  he 
went  down  with  his  parents  to  Nazareth,  and  con- 
Luke  iii,  23.  tinned  subject  unto  them  till  he  was  thirty  years 
old !  But,  alas !  it  often  happens  that  parents, 
viewed  in  respect  to  their  personal  characters,  are 
unworthy  of  being  honored.  And  therefore  my 
idea  of  the   Fifth  Commandment   is  that,  in  its 


THE   FIFTH   COMMANDMENT.  153 

deepest  and  truest  sense,  it  does  not  mean  the 
parent  himself  as  much  as  it  means  the  parental 
relation ;  not  so  much  the  person  as  the  principle. 

In  other  words,  the  gist  of  the  Fifth  Command- 
ment consists  of  these  two  fundamental  principles : 
First,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  law ;  and,  secondly, 
law  must  be  obeyed.  For  man  was  created  for 
obedience  as  well  as  for  enjoyment,  for  law  as  well 
as  for  love.  Never  was  this  lesson  needed  more 
than  in  our  democratic  age  and  our  republican  land. 
Allegiance,  or  amenability  to  law,  this  is  a  constitu- 
tional, constituent  part  of  manhood.  And  it  is  the 
parent  (father  and  mother  equally)  who  is  the  nat- 
ural symbol  of  authority.  Parentage,  in  simple 
virtue  of  its  being  parentage,  is  inherently  impera- 
tive :  it  is  of  the  very  essence  of  parentage  that  it  is 
constitutively  and  rightfully  authoritative.  Au- 
thorhood,  genealogically  as  well  as  etymologically,  is 
the  sire  of  authority. 

2.  But  you  interrupt  me  with  a  question :  Must  the 
"Must  the  child  always  obey  his  parents?"  I  ways  Obey? 
answer,  first,  your  question  is  a  question  in  casuistry ; 
and  questions  in  casuistry  are  not  to  be  answered 
dogmatically,  for  they  are  the  most  puzzling  of 
problems.  I  answer  again  that  there  can  be  no  real 
conflict  between  moral  laws ;  whatever  conflict  there 
may  seem  to  be  is  not  between  the  laws  themselves, 
but  in  our  subjective  apprehension  of  them.  I  an- 
swer once  more  that  in  all  matters  of  casuistry,  as 
in  this  particular  matter  raised  by  your  question,  we 
must  be  guided  by  general  principles.  For  ex- 
ample :  In  the  sphere  of  fundamental  moral  obli- 


154  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

gatious,  my  father  and  I  staud  on  an  equality 
before  God  ;  in  tiiis  sphere  he  lias  no  more  right 
to  command  me  than  I  have  to  command  him. 
But  in  the  sphere  of  incidental,  shifting  duties,  my 
father  is  over  me,  and  has  a  right  to  command  me. 
For  instance :  suppose,  on  the  one  hand,  that  my 
father  command  me  to  do  something  that  has  no 
moral  quality  in  itself — say  something  that  is  sim- 
ply irksome  to  me — I  must  obey :  for  he  is  my 
father,  and  I  am  commanded  to  honor  him.  But 
suppose,  on  the  other  hand,  my  father  commands 
me  to  do  something  in  itself  morally  wrong — say  to 
worship  graven  images,  or  to  lie,  or  to  steal — then 
I  must  at  all  hazards  disobey  him  :  for  my  father 
has  no  authority  to  make  or  unmake  moral  laws. 

Eph.  vi,  1.  Listen  again  to  the  Apostle  Paul :  "  Children,  obey 

youv  parents  in  the  Lord" — that  is,  in  the  sphere 
of  moral  divine  obligation. 

Duty  of  Par-  3.  Of  course,  our  commandment,  let  me  say  in 
passing,  presupposes  a  reverend  element  in  the 
parent  himself.  The  very  command — ^^Honour'^ — 
involves  moral  worth  on  the  part  of  him  who  is  to 
be  honored.  How  naturally  the  Apostle  Paul 
links  filial  revering  and  parental  worth  in  his  letter 

Eph  vi.  1-4.  to  the  Ephesians  :  "Children,  obey  your  parents 
in  the  Lord  :  for  this  is  right :  honour  thy  father 
and  mother:  andy  ye  fathers,  provoke  not  your 
children  to  wrath  :  but  nurture  them  in  the  chas- 
tening and  admonition  of  the  Lord/'     And  again 

Col.  iii,  20, 21.  in  his  letter  to  the  Colossians :  "Children,  obey 
your  parents  in  all  things ;  for  this  is  well-pleas- 
ing in  the  Lord :  fathers,  provoke  not  your  chil- 


THE  FIFTH  CX)MMANDMENT.  155 

dren,  that  they  be  not  discouraged."  That  is  to 
say:  Do  not  take  advantage  of  your  parental 
authority,  divinely  ordained  though  it  is,  to  lord 
it  over  your  children.  Do  not  irritate  them  by 
unreasonable  commands,  or  by  excessive  scrupulous- 
ness, lest  they  lose  heart  in  their  endeavors  to  be 
good,  for  children  are  especially  sensitive  and  easily 
discouraged.  Christian  parents  often  err  in  this  mat- 
ter of  excessive  discipline.  They  are  conscientious 
aud  painstakingly  anxious  to  train  up  their  children 
in  the  way  that  they  should  go ;  but  their  train- 
ing is  so  minute  and  austere  that  it  defeats  itself. 
Overloaded  with  requirements,  and  held  in  too  tight 
a  vise,  the  children  lose  all  heart  in  trying  to  be 
good,  their  very  life  being  pressed  out  of  them  by 
over-conscientiousness.  "  But  nurture  them  in  the 
chastening  and  admonition  of  the  Lord.''  Observe 
that  the  apostle  addresses  this  precept  particularly 
to  fathers ;  and  well  he  may,  for  fathers,  instead  of 
personally  taking  in  hand  the  moral  supervision  of 
their  children,  are  too  apt  to  turn  it  altogether  over 
to  mothers.  Observe,  also,  that  this  precept  is  a 
two-edged  sword.  How  can  a  father  bring  up  his 
child  in  Christ's  discipline  and  education  unless  he 
himself  is  a  Christian  ?  How  can  a  child  honor 
his  father  unless  that  father  is  in  his  own  personal 
character  worthy  of  being  honored  ?  I  grant  that 
a  child  can  obey  a  bad  father ;  but  he  certainly 
cannot  honor  his  father  unless  that  father  is  inher- 
ently worthy  of  honor.  The  child  can  pay  him  the 
reverence  of  an  outward  obedience,  but  he  cannot 
really  revere  that  which  is  not  in  itself  reverend. 


156  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

It  is  not  possible  for  a  father  to  fulfill  his  sacred 
office  without  being  himself  a  child  of  God.  How 
exquisitely  the  Scottish  bard  portrays  a  Christian 
household  gathered  for  family  worship  : 

'  The     Cotter'3    They  chant  their  artless  notes  in  simple  guise  ; 
Night."  ^  They  tune  their  hearts,  by  far  the  noblest  aim : 

Perhaps  "  Dundee's  "  wild  warbling  measures  rise, 

Or  plaintive  "  Martyrs,"  worthy  of  the  name ; 
Or  noble  "  Elgin  "  beets  the  heav'nward  flame, 

The  sweetest  far  of  Scotia's  holy  lays, 
Compared  with  these,  Italian  trills  are  tame ; 

The  tiekl'd  ears  no  heartfelt  raptures  raise  ; 

Nae  unison  hae  they  with  our  Creator's  praise. 
The  priest-like  father  reads  the  sacred  page, 

How  Abram  was  the  friend  of  God  on  high ; 
Or  Moses  bade  eternal  warfare  wage 

With  Amalek's  ungracious  progeny  ; 
Or  how  the  royal  bard  did  groaning  lie 

Beneath  the  stroke  of  heaven's  avenging  ire ; 
Or  Job's  pathetic  plaint  and  wailing  cry  ; 

Or  rapt  Isaiah's  wild,  seraphic  fire ; 

Or  other  holy  seers  that  tune  the  sacred  lyre. 
Perhaps  the  Christian  volume  is  the  theme. 

How  guiltless  blood  for  guilty  man  was  shed ; 
How  He  who  bore  in  heaven  the  second  name 

Had  not  on  earth  whereon  to  lay  his  head ; 
How  his  first  followers  and  servants  sped  ; 

The  precepts  sage  they  wrote  to  many  a  land  : 
How  he,  who  lone  in  Patmos  banished. 

Saw  in  the  sun  a  mighty  angel  stand  ; 

And  heard  great  Bab'lon's  doom  pronounced  by  Heaven's 
command. 
Then,  kneeling  down  to  heaven's  eternal  King 

The  saint,  the  father,  and  the  husband  prays : 
Hope  springs  "  exulting  on  triumphant  wing," 

That  thus  they  all  shall  meet  in  future  days  : 
There  ever  bask  in  uncreated  rays. 

No  more  to  sigh,  or  shed  the  bitter  tear. 
Together  hymning  their  Creator's  praise, 

In  such  society,  yet  still  more  dear. 

While  circling  Time  moves  round  in  an  eternal  sphere. 


THE   FIFTH    COMMANDMENT.  157 

II.  And  now  we  pass,  secondly,  from  the  divine  The  Divine 
mandate—"  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother"—      P^^^'^^se. 
to  the  divine  promise  : 

That  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the  land  which  Exod.  xx,  12. 
Jehovah  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

Here  is  another  instance  of  the  fact  that  the  Deca- 
logue, in  its  primary  intent,  was  meant  for  the  He- 
brew nation,  it  being,  as  we  have  seen,  Jehovah's 
covenant  with  his  chosen  people.  Recall  the  First 
Commandment:  "I  am  Jehovah  thy  God,  who  Exod. xx, 2, 3. 
brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the 
house  of  bondage :  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods 
before  me."  And  so  here :  "  Honour  thy  father  and 
thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  that  land 
of  Canaan  which  Jehovah  thy  God  hath  promised 
thee,  and  whither  thou  art  going  up."  But  while  the 
phraseology  of  the  Fifth  Commandment  is  local,  and 
therefore  transient,  the  meaning  is  universal,  and 
therefore  abiding.  Listen  to  PauFs  generalization  : 
"Honour  thy  father  and  mother  (which  is  the  first  Epu.  vi,2,3. 
commandment  with  promise),  that  it  may  be  well 
with  thee,  and  thou  mayest  live  long  on  the  earth," 
not  simply  in  the  land  of  Canaan.  Nothing  is 
more  certain,  at  least  in  a  physiological  way,  than 
this :  Kespect  for  parental  authority  tends  to  lon- 
gevity ;  filial  reverence  is  itself  an  admirable 
hygiene.  Recall  the  story  of  the  Rechabites :  Be-  Jer.xxxv,is,i9 
cause  they  had  for  centuries  obeyed  the  command- 
ment of  Jonadab,  their  ancestor,  and  kept  all  his 
precepts,  therefore  Jehovah  promised,  through  the 
mouth  of  his  prophet  Jeremiah,  that  the  house  of 
Jonadab,  the  son  of  Rechab,  should  stand  before 
U 


158  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

him  forever.  And  the  promise  has  been  wonder- 
•  fully  fulfilled  :  as  late  as  the  year  of  our  Lord  1862, 
Signor  Pierotti  met  a  tribe  of  Kechabites  near  the 
southeast  end  of  the  Dead  Sea,  who  still  observe 
the  precepts  and  maintain  the  organization  enjoined 
by  their  ancestor  Jonadab,  in  the  time  of  Elijah 
the  prophet.*  What  was  it  that  gave  to  Rome  its 
long-continued  tremendous  power  and  majesty  ?  It 
was  the  patria  potestaSy  or  paternal  authority,  before 
which  every  Roman  youth  unquestioningly  bowed ; 
for  loyalty  is  the  sire  of  royalty.  Even  China  her- 
self, although  her  civilization  was  long  ago  arrested 
and  petrified,  owes,  I  doubt  not,  her  preservation 
through  millenniums  to  the  fealty  of  her  children  to 
their  ancestral  commandments  and  traditions.  But 
why  cross  the  oceans  for  examples  ?  Behold  the 
Quakers  of  our  own  Pennsylvania ;  the  unwrinkled 
brows  of  their  octogenarians  placidly  testify  that 
the  honoring  of  father  and  mother  is  a  healthful, 
LeT.  xix,  32.  life-promoting  habit.  Rise,  then,  young  man,  be- 
fore the  hoary  head,  and  honor  the  face  of  the  old 
man,  and  fear  thy  God. 

ProT.  Ti,  20-22.  My  son,  keep  the  commandment  of  thy  father, 

And  forsake  not  the  law  of  thy  mother  : 
Bind  them  continually  upon  thine  heart, 
Tie  them  about  thy  neck. 
When  thou  walkest,  it  shall  lead  thee ; 
When  thou  sleepest,  it  shall  watch  over  thee ; 
And  when  thou  awakest,  it  shall  talk  with  thee. 

On  the  other  hand, 

ProT.  XXX,  17.  The  eye  that  mocketh  at  his  father 

And  despiseth  to  obey  his  mother, 

>  "  Hours  with  the  Bible,"  by  Cunningham  Geikie,  D.  D. 
Vol.  v.,  pages  350-353. 


THE   FIFTH   CX)MMANDMENT.  159 

The  ravens  of  the  valley  shall  pick  it  out, 
And  the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it. 

Honor,  then,  O  young  man,  thy  father  and  thy 
mother,  that  it  may  be  well  with  thee,  and  thou 
mayest  live  long  on  the  earth. 

III.  And  now  we  turn  to  a  wider  application  of  The  Parent  a 
our  theme.  Hitherto  I  have  spoken  of  the  Fifth  thJ^g^^'t^.'"' 
Commandment  as  enjoining  reverence  for  those 
who  are  literally  our  parents.  But  the  terms 
"  father  '^  and  "  mother,"  as  every  Orientalist  knows, 
have  a  much  wider  range  of  application,  meaning 
any  who  are  reverend  because  of  their  years^  their 
wisdom,  their  station,  or  their  character.^  Let  me, 
then,  in  the  third  place,  apply  our  commandment 
to  the  sphere  of  the  citizen  life,  interpreting  it  as 
meaning  that  we  must  honor  our  civic  parents. 
For  the  relation  between  parent  and  child  is,  as  I 
believe,  a  divinely  ordained  type  of  the  relation 
between  the  State  and  the  citizen.  It  was  not  with- 
out deep  significance  that  the  Romans  were  wont  to 

1 "  This  truth  was  impressed  on  my  mind  by  an  incident  in 
my  journey  across  the  desert  of  Sinai.  My  companions  in 
travel  were  two  young  men,  neither  of  them  a  relative  of  mine 
— as  my  dragoman  very  well  knew.  When,  however,  in  mid- 
desert,  we  met  an  old  Arab  sheik,  through  whose  territory  we 
were  to  pass,  my  dragoman  introduced  me  as  the  father  of 
these  young  men.  '  No ;  they  are  not  my  sons,'  I  said  to  the 
dragoman  ;  but  his  answer  was  :  '  That's  all  right.  Somebody 
must  be  father  here.'  And  when  I  found  that,  according  to 
the  Arab  idea,  every  party  of  travelers  must  have  a  leader, 
and  that  the  leader  of  a  party  was  called  its  *  father,'  I  saw 
that  it  would  look  better  for  me  to  be  called  the  father  of  the 
young  men,  than  for  one  of  them  to  be  called  my  father." — 
"  The  Ten  Commandments  as  a  Covenant  of  Love,"  by  H. 
Clay  Trumbull,  D.  D.,  page  14. 


160  THE   TEN   OOMMANDMEXTS. 

call  the  rebel  against  his  country  a  parricide. 
What  the  parent  is  to  the  child,  that  the  State  in 
many  particulars  is  to  the  citizen,  only  vastly  aug- 
mented. In  fact,  no  sooner  is  the  infant  born  than 
he  enters  the  jurisdiction  of  law.  As  soon  as  he  is 
able  to  notice  relations  and  reason  about  them,  so 
soon  does  he  perceive  that  he  is  under  authority. 
One  of  the  first  lessons  he  learns  is  this :  There  are 
some  things  which  he  must  do,  and  some  things 
which  he  must  not  do ;  and  these  commands  and 
prohibitions  awaken  the  ideas  of  law  and  subor- 
dination. As  he  grows  older,  these  ideas  become 
more  vivid  and  dominant.  And,  finally,  when  he 
leaves  home  to  take  his  position  as  a  member  of 
society,  he  finds  that  the  authority  which  had 
hitherto  resided  in  his  parents  has  been  transferred 
to  the  State.  Accordingly,  parental  authority  is 
the  grand,  divinely-appointed  educator  for  citizen- 
ship. Loyalty  to  parental  law  prepares  the  way 
for  loyalty  to  civic  law.  For  whatever  ideas  of 
law  and  authority  a  young  man  has  received  as  a 
son,  these  he  will  retain  as  a  citizen.  If  he  has 
been  accustomed  to  disregard  parental  authority  at 
home,  the  likelihood  is  that  he  will  always  be  a 
disorderly  member  of  society.  If  he  has  been 
accustomed  to  honor  his  parents  at  home,  the  likeli- 
hood is  that  he  will  be  a  loyal  citizen ;  for  national 
laws,  after  all,  are  but  a  sort  of  expansion  of 
parental  laws.  Remember,  then,  that  the  laws  of 
the  United  States  of  America  are  not  primarily 
framed  in  the  Congressional  chambers  at  Washing- 
ton.  The  lawmakers  and  the  law-abiders  of  the  next 


THE   FIFTH    COMMANDMENT.  161 

generation  are  the  parents  and  the  children  of  this. 
The  laws  which  are  to  govern  us  a  generation  hence 
are  being  essentially  framed  and  executed  in  em- 
bryo to-day,  beneath  the  roofs  of  the  households  of 
our  loved  American  Union.  I  beg  you,  then, 
young  gentlemen,  to  remember  that,  as  is  the  son, 
so  is  the  citizen ;  as  is  the  family,  so  is  the  State. 
Ijawlessness  in  the  family  circle  is  the  certain  precur- 
sor of  lawlessness  at  the  polls,  in  the  chambers  of  leg- 
islature, in  the  temple  of  justice,  in  the  executive 
mansion — in  brief,  in  the  arena  of  citizenship. 
And  when  a  young  man  has  plunged  to  that  depth 
of  impiety  where  he  shrinks  not  from  insulting  the 
father  whose  name  he  bears,  or  speaking  lightly  of 
tlie  mother  whose  bosom  was  his  earliest  home; 
when  he  has  become  so  oblivious  of  the  idea  of 
law,  or  so  lost  to  the  sense  of  moral  obligation  as 
to  be  able  to  laugh  at  the  idea  of  parental  au- 
thority ; — I  say  of  this  young  man  that,  when  he 
enters  society,  he  enters  it  with  a  heart  prepared, 
should  the  opportunity  offer,  to  do  the  work  of  a 
felon,  an  outlaw,  a  traitor.  And  when  the  youths 
of  a  nation  grow  up  with  th^e  idea  that  it  is  un- 
manly to  honor  their  psirents,  or  to.  venerate  old 
age,  or  to  respect  authority,  I  say  of  this  nation 
that,  whatever  be  the  richness  of  h^er  natural  pro- 
ducts, or  the  spiieadl  of  her  commerce,  or  the  wealth 
of  her  revenue,  or  the  bravery  of  her  citizens,  or 
the  learning  pf  her  scholars,  or  the  genius  of  her 
statesmen,  o^  the  grandeur  of  her  history — her 
foundatioupstones  are  already  unsettled  and  heaving, 
and  that  it  oflily  needs  the  slightest  jar,  and  all  that 


162  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

shall  remain  to  tell  of  her  prosperity  and  liberty 
and  richness  and  glory  will  be  the  magnificent  ter- 
ribleness  of  her  ruins.  Believe  me,  the  surest 
guarantee  which  the  patriot  has  that  the  people  of 
the  next  generation  will  be  a  prosperous,  virtuous, 
law-abiding  people,  consists  in  the  fidelity  with 
which  in  this  generation  parents  enforce  and  chil- 
dren obey  the  commandment — Honour  thy  father 
and  thy  mother. 

Fifth    Com-       IV.  And  now  let  me,  in  the  fourth  place,  re- 

Pe^rtiuentto  ^iud  you  that  our  theme  is  especially  pertinent  to 

Our  Times,  ^^j.  q^^^,  times.     There  are  two  tendencies  in  our 

land  and  age  which  make  the  discussion  of  the 

Fifth  Commandment  particularly  appropriate. 

Ours  an  A^e       1.  And  first,  our  age  is  an  age  of  innovation. 

tk)n!°^^^*"  ^^^  -^  ^^  ^^^'  ^''^^^  joining  in  the  Jeremiad  that 

we  are  living  in  a  period  of  hopeless  degeneracy. 

isam.iv,2i.  I  do  not  belicve  that  the  glory  has  altogether  de- 
parted from  our  Israel,  and  therefore  I  am  not 
yet  ready  to  name  the  new  generation  Ichabod. 
Nevertheless,  I  fear  that  we  have  lost  somewhat 
of  the  profound  religious  convictions  and  child-like 
obedience  of  our  forefathers;  and  therefore  I  echo 
in  your   ears   the  prophet's   summons   to  ancient 

jer.  vi,  16.  Israel:  "Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and   see,  and  ask 

for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way,  and  walk 
therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls.'' 

The  Past  the  For  the  past  in  its  essentials  is  the  sire  of  all  that 
is  essential  in  the  present  and  in  the  future.  This, 
in  fact,  is  the  reason  why  we  so  often  say,  "  History 
repeats  itself."  Listeq  to  quaint  Sir  Thomas 
Browne  : 


Same  as  the 
•resent. 


THE   FIFTH   COMMANDMENT.  163 

Every  man  is  not  only  himself :  there  have  been  many  Diog-    •«  Religio  Med 
eneses  and  many  Timons,  though  but  few  of  the  name ;  men       icL" 
are  lived  over  again  ;  the  world  is  now  as  it  was  in  ages  past ; 
there  was  none  then,  but  there  has  been  some  one  since  that 
parallels  him,  and  is,  as  it  were,  his  revived  self. 

Only  non-essentials — fashions  of  raiment  and 
vehicle  and  etiquette — have  changed.  There  is 
the  same  material  nature ;  the  same  sun,  rising  and 
setting,  shining  and  clouded;  the  same  winds,  now 
blowing  east,  now  blowing  west,  now  a  tempest, 
.now  a  zephyr;  the  same  tides,  now  spring,  now 
neap;  the  same  gravitation,  still  giving  us  and  all 
things  weight.  There  is  the  same  human  nature; 
the  same  body,  with  heart  to  throb,  and  blood  to 
flow,  and  muscle  to  contract,  and  nerve  to  transmit, 
and  hunger  to  prompt,  and  death  to  dissolve ;  the 
same  intellect,  to  reason,  and  imagine,  and  compare, 
and  judge;  the  same  sensibility,  to  love,  and  hate, 
and  joy,  and  grieve ;  the  same  heart,  to  conquer  or 
to  be  conquered.  There  is  the  same  divine  nature, 
still  loving  and  rewarding  uprightness,  still  hating 
and  punishing  wickedness.  As  there  is  oneness  of 
law  through  space,  so  there  is  oneness  of  law 
through  time.  The  words  of  the  wisest  of  men 
are  as  true  to-day  as  they   were  three   thousand 


One  generation  goeth,  and  another  generation  cometh  ;  and  Eccl.  1,  4-10. 
the  earth  abideth  forever.  The  sun  also  ariseth,  and  the  sun 
goeth  down,  and  hasteth  to  his  place  where  he  ariseth.  The 
wind  goeth  toward  the  south,  and  turneth  about  unto  the 
north  ;  it  turneth  about  continually  in  its  course,  and  the  wind 
returneth  again  to  its  circuits.  All  the  rivers  run  into  the  sea, 
yet  the  sea  is  not  full ;  unto  the  place  whither  the  rivers  go, 
thither  they  go  again.  That  which  hath  been  is  that  which 
shall  be  ;  and  that  which  hath  been  done  is  that  which  shall  be 


164  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

done :  and  there  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun.  Is  there  a 
thing  wherof  men  say,  See,  this  is  new  ?  it  hath  been  already, 
in  the  ages  which  were  before  us. 

Tiie  Present  But  not  Only  is  the  past  in  its  outlines  and 
of  the  Past,  esseuce  the  same  as  the  present;  the  past  is  also  the 
root  of  the  present  and  the  seed  of  the  future.  As 
the  germ  is  but  the  first  stage  of  a  living  career,  so 
the  experience  of  the  earliest  of  our  race  is  but  the 
first  stage  of  our  own.  And  as  the  embryologist 
may  discern  in  the  egg  the  prophecy  and  type  of 
the  animal,  so  he  who  reads  history  aright  may 
discern  in  the  experiences  of  those  who  have  gone 
before  us  the  prophecies  and  types  of  our  own. 
For  spontaneous  generation  is  as  impossible  in  the 
spiritual  world  as  it  is  now  admitted  to  be  in  the 
material.  Even  the  inventions  which  are  the 
glory  of  our  century  were  conceived  in  embryo 
thousands  of  years  ago,  as  every  well-educated 
inventor  knows.  It  is  so  with  human  experience, 
and  the  progressive  mastery  of  truth.  As  the  oak 
is  identical  with  the  acorn  from  which  it  sprung, 
only  larger,  so  our  experience  is  identical  with  the 
experience  of  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  only 
ampler.  And  as  the  animal  is  identical  with  the 
ovum  of  which  it  is  but  the  unfolding,  so  the  wis- 
dom which  exists  in  the  world  to-day  is  identical 
with  the  germ- like  notions  which  existed  in  our 
ancestors.  They  were  the  seed,  we  are  the  harvest; 
and  the  harvest  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the  seed. 

The  Past  an  Now  it  is  just  because  the  past  in  its  essentials  is 
the  same  as  the  present,  and,  in  fact,  is  the  parent 
of  it,  that  the  past  becomes  to  us  an  oracle,  speak- 


THE   FIFTH   COMMANDMENT.  165 

ing  with  the  voice  of  prophecy,  of  instruction,  of 
authority.  I  do  not,  indeed,  forget  that  Francis 
Bacon  has  said  that  "a  fro  ward  retention  of  custom  "Essays,"  xxiv 
is  as  turbulent  a  thing  as  an  innovation ;  and  they 
that  reverence  too  much  old  times  are  but  a  scorn 
to  the  new."  Neither  do  I  forget  that  he  elsewhere 
says:  "The  antiquity  of  past  ages  is  the  youth  of 
the  world,''  the  poet-philosopher  meaning  that  it  is 
the  present  which  is  really  old,  and  the  past  which 
is  really  young.  Certainly  we  ought  to  know  more 
than  our  fathers,  for  we  have  reached  a  maturer 
stage  in  the  world's  life  than  they;  the  oak,  though 
identical  with  the  nut,  is  larger.  I  would  not, 
therefore,  unduly  exalt  the  value  of  precedents,  or 
conclude  that  whatever  is  ancestral  must  therefore 
be  excellent.  On  the  other  hand,  I  cannot  venture 
to  pronounce  the  results  of  thousands  of  years  of 
thoughts,  and  experiences  as  altogether  worthless. 
An  American  orator,  not  long  since  departed,  al- 
though himself  one  of  the  doughtiest  champions 
of  innovation,  was  wont  to  enchain  his  audiences 
with  a  eulogy  on  the  Lost  Arts.  It  is  quite  possi- 
ble that  this  Apollo  of  orators  might  have  found  a 
richer  theme  on  which  to  expatiate  had  his  silvery 
voice  descanted  on  the  Lost  Virtues. 

VixSre  fortes  ante  Agamemnon  a  Horace. 

Multi. 

I  believe  that  whatever  of  real  excellence  our 
forefathers  taught  or  practiced  should  be  accepted 
by  us  as  though  it  were  invested  with  the  sceptre 
of  empire,  all  the  more  imperial  because  ancestral, 
I  cannot  believe  that  the  judgments  of  wise  men, 


166  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

aud  the  institutions  and  customs  formed  in  times 
"whereof" — to  use  the  grand  phraseology  of  the 
law  books — "  the  memory  of  man  runneth  not  to 
the  contrary,"  are  to  be  set  aside  simply  because 
they  are  old.  The  new  may  seem  better ;  but  it  is 
because  it  has  the  charm  of  novelty,  and  relieves 
for  a  moment  our  restiveness.  Great  weight  is 
tliere  in  the  words  of  an  orator  whose  eloquence 
was  rivaled  by  his  philosophic  sagacity — Edmund 
Burke:  "It  cannot  be  too  often  repeated,  Mine 
upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,'  until  it  comes 
into  the  currency  of  a  proverb,  that  to  innovate  is 
not  to  reform.  Rage  and  frenzy  will  pull  down 
more  in  half  an  hour  than  prudence,  delibera- 
tion, and  foresight  can  build  up  in  a  hundred 
years." 
A  Plea  for  Therefore  do  I,  young  gentlemen,  lift  up  my 
voice  in  behalf  of  reverend  antiquity:  doubly 
reverend,  first,  because  it  is  antiquity ;  and  secondly, 
because,  being  antiquity,  it  is  an  oracle.  For  it  is 
too  evident  that  there  is  a  growing  tendency  to 
undervalue  the  lessons  of  the  past,  and  tread 
with  disdain  on  its  authority.  The  very  word 
"antiquated"  has  come  to  mean  worn  out  with 
age,  obsolete.  This  tendency  to  undervalue  the 
past  often  finds  expression  in  the  attitude  of  the 
young  toward  the  old.  The  callow  stripling  feels 
himself  to  be  the  master  of  the  situation,  and  looks 
with  a  sort  of  pity  on  the  white-haired  patriarch. 
Poor  old  Decrepitude  must  hasten  to  hobble  off 
the  sidewalk,  lest  it  should  be  tripped  up  by  the 
swaggering  gait  of  blustering  Adolescence.     Young 


THE  FIFTH   COMMANDMENT. 


167 


gentlemen,  recall  Alexander  Pope's  satire,  and  be 
warned  by  it: 

We  think  our  fathers  fools,  so  wise  we  groyr ; 
Our  wiser  sons,  no  doubt,  will  think  us  so. 

Yes ;  it  is  time  that  we  turn  our  faces  ancient- ward, 
and  make  salaam  to  the  hoary  past.  And  in  thus 
summoning  you  to  bow  before  the  past,  I  but  echo 
many  an  ancient  Scripture.  For  example — the 
farewell  song  of  Sinai's  mediator : 

Remember  the  days  of  old, 
Consider  the  years  of  many  generations : 
Ask  thy  father,  and  he  will  shew  thee ; 
Thine  elders,  and  they  will  tell  thee. 

Again,  the  patriarch  of  Uz : 

Inquire,  I  pray  thee,  of  the  former  age. 

And  apply  thyself  to  that  which  their  fathers  have  searched 

out: 
(For  we  are  but  of  yesterday,  and  know  nothing ; 
Because  our  days  upon  earth  are  a  shadow :) 
Shall  not  they  teach  thee,  and  tell  thee, 
And  utter  words  out  of  their  heart  ? 

Once  more,  the  prophet  of  Anathoth : 

Stand  ye  in  the  ways  and  see. 

And  ask  for  the  old  paths,  where  is  the  good  way, 

And  walk  therein,  and  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls. 


'  Essay  on  Criti- 
cism." 


Peut.  xxxii,  7, 


/y 


Job  Tiii,  8-10. 


Jer.  Ti,  16. 


2.  Secondly,  our  age  is  an  age  of  anarchy  or  Ours  an  Age 
moral  lawlessness.  This  lawlessness  takes  on  ^  ^^'^  ^* 
various  guises.  For  example :  There  is  the  law- 
lessness of  avowed  anarchy — whether  communism, 
nihilism,  socialism,  or  what  not.  But  I  suppose 
there  are  no  professional  anarchists  in  these  classic 
halls ;  and  therefore  why  should  I  descant  on  this 


168  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

point  ?  Again,  there  is  the  lawlessness  of  popular 
sovereignty  ;  and  here  we  come  nearer  home.  This 
lawlessness  betrays  itself  in  such  American  idioms 
as  these :  "  Manifest  destiny,"  "  Our  country,  right 
or  wrong,"  "  Might  makes  right,"  "  The  voice  of 
the  people  is  the  voice  of  God,"  and  the  like.  My 
countrymen,  be  warned  in  season.  The  democracy 
that  does  not  bow  reverently  before  that  Theocracy 
whose  constitution  is  the  Decalogue,  and  whose 
interpretation  is  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  is  essentially  a  lawless  and  atheistic 
democracy.  Do  you  want  an  illustration?  You 
shall  have  one  that  is  appalling — the  French  Kev- 
olution  ;  listen  to  one  of  the  haranguers  of  that 
cnmson  epoch,  Anacharsis  Clootz:  "  The  people  is 
sufficient  for  itself,  and  will  subsist  forever.  Citi- 
zens, there  is  no  other  sovereign  than  the  human 
race,  the  people-God.  To  this  Utopia  the  only 
obstacle  is  religion.  Let  us  grind  it  to  powder  !" 
And  in  grinding  it  to  powder,  they  compounded 
that  terrific  fulminating  force  which  exploded  into 
blackened  fragments  the  liberty  and  peace  and 
virtue  and  glory  of  France.  Again,  there  is  the 
lawlessness  of  selfishness:  for  instance,  the  lawless- 
ness of  ambition,  setting  at  naught  all  moral  obli- 
gations that  stand  in  the  way  of  personal  promotion ; 
the  lawlessness  of  avarice,  overriding  all  require- 
ments of  veracity,  honesty,  equity,  charity;  the 
lawlessness  of  monopoly,  planting  its  relentless 
heel  on  the  neck  of  society,  tyrannically  setting  up 
the  throne  of  its  parvenu  morality.  Again,  there 
is  the  lawlessness  of  intemperance;  a  lawlessness 


THE   FIFTH   CXDMMANDMENT.  169 

which  defies  all  restraints  of  government,  human 
and  divine,  which  riotously  scatters  over  the  com- 
munity firebrands  and  arrows  and  death,  which 
gives  loose  rein  to  all  hot  passions  of  debauchery, 
strife,  blasphemy,  cruelty,  lust,  murder  :  if  there 
is  a  duty  which  the  patriot  owes  bis  country,  it  is 
the  duty  of  extinguishing  the  saloon  ;  for  if  there 
is  in  all  this  world  an  incarnation  of  anarchy,  it  is 
the  demon  of  alcohol.  Again,  there  is  the  law- 
lessness of  idiosyncrasy ;  a  lawlessness  which  tempts 
the  man  who  believes  himself  to  be  a  "genius'' 
(how  many  such  there  are  in  most  universities  !)  to 
fancy  that  he  is  so  peculiarly  great  as  to  be  above 
law ;  which  tempts  each  vocation  to  set  up  for 
itself  a  sort  of  professional  conscience  that  condones 
in  its  own  case  what  it  condemns  in  the  case  of 
others;  which  sometimes  gives  even  to  a  thing  so 
sacred  as  the  sense  of  a  personal  mission  an  egotism 
that  feels  itself  to  be  quite  above  law.  Again, 
there  is  the  lawlessness  of  irreligion  :  for  instance, 
the  lawlessness  which  undertakes  to  break  dow'n 
the  Sabbath,  because  it  is  the  symbol  of  God's 
sovereignty  over  man,  the  weekly  toll  which  the 
Almighty  imposes  on  human  capacities;  the  law- 
lessness which  assumes  to  decree  what  shall  be 
Scripture  and  conscience  and  truth  and  duty  and 
God  ;  the  lawlessness  which  infects  the  church  her- 
self, tempting  her  to  say  with  the  antinomian  of 
the  apostle's  day  :  "  I  am  not  under  law ;  I  am  Rom.  vi,  15. 
under  grace;  therefore  I  will  be  the  law  unto 
myself;  I  will  do  what  is  right  in  mine  own  eyes." 
Ah  !  here  is  the  secret  of  the  fall  of  so  many  pro- 
15 


170  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Phu.ii,  9.  fessors  of  the  Name   that   is  above  every  name. 

Ouce  more  and  comprehensively,  there  is  the  law- 
lessness of  individualism  ;  the  lawlessness  which, 
substituting  personal  autonomy  for  divine  authority, 
tends  to  disintegrate  society,  making  men  independ- 
ent of  each  other  by  making  them  independent 
of  God,  breaking  men  off  as  splinters  from  the 
great  continent  of  mankind,  leaving  them  to  drift 
as  ego-islets  in  the  ocean  of  existence,  even  to  tiiat 

Luke,  XV,  13-16.  far-off  and  ignoble  country  wherein  no  man  gives 
audit  to  his  famishiu2:  brother,  but  all  would  fain 
fill  themselves  with  the  husks  that  the  swine  do 
eat.  It  is  not  pleasant  to  play  the  role  of  Cassan- 
dra, especially  in  the  presence  of  buoyant  youth. 
Nevertheless,  Cassandra  told  the  truth,  and  Ilium 
fell.  Young  gentlemen,  I  cannot  help  feeling  that 
we  are  living  in  portentous  days.  I  seem  to  see  the 
ravens  of  evil  augury  flying  at  my  left.  For 
descendants  of  Pilgrims  and  Quakers  are  living  in 
times  when,  under  cover  of  liberty,  the  Sabbath  is 
ostentatiously  desecrated ;  when  trustees  betray 
trusts,  and  statesmen  sell  opportunities,  and  juries 
ogle  at  justice,  and  judges  wink  at  bribes ;  when 
Christian  communities  purr  over  crime  in  propor- 
tion to  its  atrocity;  when  self-appointed  vigilance 
committees  take  it  upon  them  to  execute  in  half 
an  hour  the  various  functions  of  lawmaker,  con- 
stable, attorney,  judge,  juror,  jailor,  hangman ;  when 
mobs  of  drunken  anarchists  bespatter  our  streets 
with  human  gore;  when  "respectable"  people 
sneer  at  the  marriage  bond  as  a  relic  of  a  priestly 
and  effete  despotism,  and  openly  dispense  with  it 


THE    FIFTH    COMMANDMENT.  171 

as  a  superstitious  inconvenience ;  when  men  and 
women  huddle  in  sacrilegious  rendezvous,  and  in 
the  exercise  of  an  infinite  imbecility  resolve  that 
there  is  neither  law  nor  gospel,  neither  hell  nor 
heaven,  neither  sin  nor  God,  and  that  man's  true 
dignity  consists  in  his  own  apotheosis  and  in  doing 
what  is  right  in  his  own  eyes. 

In  such  indexes,  although  small  pricks  "Troilus     and 

To  their  subsequent  volumes,  there  is  seen  Cressida,"  Act 

The  baby  figure  of  the  giant  mass  ' 
Of  things  to  come  at  large  : 

even   that  final  anti-Christ,  whom  St.  Paul  por-  2  Thcss.  li,  1-12. 

trays  as  the  man  of  sin,  the  lawless  one,  the  son  of 

perdition,    the    mystery   of   lawlessness,   he   who 

opposes  and  exalts  himself  against  all  that  is  called 

God,  or  that  is  worshiped ;    he  who  sits  in  the 

temple   of   God,   setting    himself   forth   as   God, 

whose  coming  is  according  to  the  working  of  Satan, 

with  all  power,  and  signs,  and  lying  wonders,  and 

with  all  deceit  of  unrighteousness  for  them  that  are 

perishing  :  whom,  thank  God,  the  Lord  Jesus  shall 

slay  with  the  breath  of  his  mouth,  and  bring  to 

naught  by  the  manifestation  of  his  coming.     God 

speed  the  day  ! 

V.  And  now  we  are  ready  for  our  concluding  Human    Par- 
thought — namely :  Human  parentage  is  a  symbol      symbol*^  o^ 
of  the  Divine.     In  fact,  this  is  the  final  meaning      ^^®  Divine, 
of  the  Fifth  Commandment ;  for,  strictly  speak- 
ing, it  is  the  human  fatherhood  which  is  figurative, 
or,  as  the  theologians  might  say,  an  accommodation 
to  the  divine ;  not  the  divine  fatherhood  which  is 
figurative,  or  an  accommodation  to  the  human ;  for 


172  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  spiritual  exists  before  the  material,  even  as  the 
substance  exists  before  the  shadow  which  it  casts. 
Accordingly,  it  is  in  the  school  of  the  earthly  fath- 
erhood that  we  are  trained  for  the  heavenly.  For 
1  Cor.  XV,  46.  that  is  not  first  which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which 
is  natural ;  then  that  which  is  spiritual.  Here,  in 
fact,  is  the  meaning,  the  final  cause,  of  the  parental 
institution  itself.  The  Creator  ordained  it,  not  so 
much  for  man's  sake  as  for  his  own  sake,  meaning 
that  it  should  serve  as  the  ladder  by  which  we 
may  ascend  to  his  own  blessed  fatherhood,  and 
joyously  feel  his  paternal  sway.  And  this  is 
majesty  indeed.  It  is  told  of  Daniel  Webster  that, 
when  a  party  of  distinguished  gentlemen  were 
dining  with  him  at  his  Marshfield  home,  and  one 
of  his  guests  asked  him  what  single  thing  had 
contributed  most  to  his  personal  success,  the  famous 
statesman  paused  for  a  moment,  and  then,  with 
great  solemnity,  replied :  "  I  think  that  the  most 
fruitful  and  elevating  influence  I  have  ever  felt  has 
been  my  impression  of  my  obligation  to  God." 
Believe  me,  young  gentleman,  no  man  is  ever  so 
sublime  as  when  he  is  consciously  loyal  to  the  King 
of  kings ;  no  man  is  ever  so  supremely  blessed  as 
when  he  reverently  sits  at  the  feet  of  the  infinite 
Father.  This,  in  fact,  is  the  meaning  of  that  fre- 
quent and  wonderful  Scriptural  phrase — the  King- 
dom of  God,  that  is  to  say,  God's  reign  in  man's 
soul.  This  is  that  Golden  Age  of  which  philos- 
ophers have  dreamed,  for  which  poets  have  sighed, 
and  of  which  Jehovah's  prophets  have  foretold 
from  the  beginning.     And  when  that  Kingdom  of 


THE   FIFTH   COMMANDMENT.  173 

God  shall  be  set  up,  then  shall  the  human  father- 
hood be  merged  into  the  divine,  earthly  anarchy- 
shall  flee  before  the  heavenly  Monarchy,  and  God  i  cor.  xv,  28. 
shall  be  all  in  all.  Then  shall  a  loyal  universe 
joyously  confess  that  Richard  Hooker's  sublime 
description  of  law  is  true  ; 

Of  Law  there  can  be  no  less  acknowledged  than  that  her  "Ecclesiastical 
seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice  the  harmony  of  the  world ;  Polity,"  Book 
all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage,  the  very  least 
as  feeling  her  care,  and  the  greatest  as  not  exempted  from  her 
power  :  both  angels,  and  men,  and  creatures  of  what  condition 
soever,  though  each  in  different  sort  and  manner,  yet  all,  with 
uniform  consent,  admiring  her  as  the  mother  of  their  peace 
and  joy. 

Then  shall  it  be  seen  that  the  kingdom  of  God  Our  Father's 

i.ii.j  r*   -I  1  1  Character 

IS  also  the  kingdom  oi   heaven,  because  heaven      the  True 
itself  will  be  a  dominion,  even  God's  kingdom.      Canaan. 
Then  shall  it  also  be  seen  that  our  Father's  char- 
acter is  the  true  and  eternal  Canaan,  which  he  has 
promised  those  who  honor  him.     For  if  we  are  Eom.viii,  17. 
children  of  God,  then  are  we  heirs  of  God,  and 
joint  heirs  with  Jesus  Christ  his  Son.     The  patri- 
mony of   God's  character,   the  heritage   of   our 
Father's  perfections — this  is  that  true  inheritance  1  Peter  i,  4. 
which:  is  incorruptible,   and  undefiled,  and  that 
fadeth  not  away,  reserved  in  heaven  for  all  those 
who  truly  honor  him.     Becoming  partakers  of  the  2  Peter  i,  4. 
divine  nature,  this  is  the  true  land  of  Canaan. 
God  grant  that  all  of  us  may  dwell  in  it  eter- 
nally I 

O  God,  whose  blessed  Son  was  manifested  that  he  might   Collect, 
destroy  the  works  of  the  devil,  and  make  us  the  sons  of  God, 
and  heirs  of  eternal  life ;   Grant  us,  we  beseech  thee,  that, 


174  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS, 

having  this  hope,  we  may  purify  ourselves,  even  as  he  is  pure ; 
that,  when  he  shall  appear  again  with  power  and  great  glory, 
we  may  he  made  like  unto  him  in  his  eternal  and  glorious 
kingdom ;  where  with  thee,  0  Father,  and  thee,  O  Holy 
Ghost,  he  liveth  and  reigneth,  ever  one  God,  world  without 
end.     Amen. 


VII. 
THE  SIXTH  COMMANDMENT. 


Thou  Shalt  do  no  murder. 

Exodus  xx,  13. 


VII. 

THE  SIXTH  COMMANDMENT. 

"What  is  the  origin  of  life?  This  is  probably  Origin  of 
the  most  fascinating,  baffling  enigma  of  to-day. 
How  shall  we  bridge  the  measureless  chasm  between 
lifeless  matter  and  living  matter,  between  C  H  O  JST 
(Carbon,  Hydrogen,  Oxygen,  Nitrogen)  as  an  in- 
organic mass  and  C  H  O  N  as  an  organic  person  ? 
What  is  that  subtile,  potent  thing,  vaguely  called 
"  principle  of  life,  vital  force,  ins  formativa/^  etc., 
which,  enshrined  in  the  inert,  apparently  structure- 
less centre  of  a  microscopic  cell,  suddenly  quickens 
it,  endows  it  with  energy,  makes  it  a  living,  grow- 
ing, parental  thing,  organizes  its  own  products  into 
that  wonderful  thing  we  call  a  man  ?  This  is  the 
problem  over  which  some  of  the  keenest-eyed  of 
our  race  are  poring  with  intensest  gaze.  Standing  in 
this  academic  presence,  it  is  not  for  me  to  presume 
to  discuss  this  problem  from  the  view-point  of  tlie 
physicist.  But  standing  here  as  a  lecturer  on  ethical 
themes,  it  is  proper  for  me  to  survey  this  problem 
from  the  Christian  platform.  Listen,  then,  to  one 
of  the  primeval  archives  of  humanity  :  "  Jehovah  Gen.  u,  7. 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ;  and 
man  became  a  living  soul.''  This  venerable  chroni- 
cle, you  perceive,  is  threefold.  First,  "Jehovah 
God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground." 
However  various  the  opinions  of  scientists  touching 

177 


178  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

the  origin  of  man,  they  all  agree  at  least  on  this 
point :  Man's  body  is  composed  substantially  of  the 
same  chemical  elements  as  the  soil  on  which  he 

Gen.  iii,  19.  trcads.  Dust  hc  is :  for  out  of  dust  was  he  taken, 
and  unto  dust  does  he  return.  How  striking,  in 
light  of  this,  such  words  as  humus,  homo,  human, 
humane,  humanity,  posthumous,  autochthon,  etc.  ! 
Lorenzo  is  exactly  right  when   he  speaks  of  the 

"Merchant    of  human  bodv  as  "this  muddy  vesture  of  decay." 

Venice  "  v  i. 

1  Cor.  xv',  47.'  Aye,  the  first  man  was  of  earth,  earthy.  "  Earth 
to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust  to  dust ! "  But,  thank 
God,  man  was  to  be  something  more  than  an  organ- 
ized mass  of  dust.  That  statue  of  clay  was  to 
become  living,  tenemental,  vehicular,  instrumental. 
And  so,  secondly,  Jehovah  God  "  breathed  into  his 
nostrils  the  breath  of  life."  Or,  as  Elihu,  son  of 
Barachel,  phrases  it : 

Job  xxxiii,  4.  The  spirit  of  God  hath  made  me, 

And  the  breath  of  the  Almighty  giveth  me  life. 

The  language,  as  on  all  such  high  themes,  is  of 
course  figurative,  and  is  to  be  taken  chiefly  in  way 
of  hint.  But  the  figure  must  be  the  figure  of  some- 
thing. What,  then,  is  the  truth  which  underlies  the 
figure,  and,  impregnating  it,  glorifies  it?  What 
does  this  inbreathing  by  the  Creator  signify,  if  not 
the  communication,  in  some  way  augustly  inscruta- 
ble, of  the  Creator's  nature  itself — even  his  eternal 
breath  or  spirit  into  man,  Godhood  into  manhood  ; 
God's  expiration  or  outbreathing  becoming  man's 
inspiration  or  inbreathing.  How  majestic  Gregory's 
Pentecostal  Hymn : 

Veni,  Creator  Splritus  1 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  179 

And  now,  thirdly,  "  Man  became  (or,  as  tlie  verb 
might  perhaps  have  been  quite  as  correctly  ren- 
dered, was)  a  living  souP^ — that  is,  a  creature  having 
life.  Accordingly,  this  venerable  archive  records 
three  independent,  yet  co-ordinate  facts.  At  the 
one  extreme  we  have  the  body,  formed  of  the  dust 
of  the  ground ;  at  the  other  extreme  we  have  the 
spirit,  inbreathed  by  the  Creator ;  and  connecting 
the  two,  serving  as  the  nidvs  for  them  to  dwell  in, 
holding  them,  so  to  speak,  in  solution,  we  have  the 
soul,  or  living  and  sentient  principle  common  to 
man  and  animal.  I  do  not  then  regard  the  "  living 
soul "  as  a  consequent  or  product  of  the  union  of 
body  and  spirit :  man  would  have  been  a  "  living 
soul ''  had  he  received  from  his  Creator  no  spirit  or 
inbreathing,  just  as  the  animals  around  him,  and 
created  on  the  same  day  with  him,  were  "  living  Oen.  i,  so.  mar- 
souls."  No  ;  man's  peculiarity,  as  distinguished 
from  animal,  comes  out  in  the  second  statement  of 
our  hoary  chronicle  :  "  Jehovah  God  breathed  into 
his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life."  I  lay  no  special 
stress  on  the  phrase  rendered  "  breath  of  life  "  con- 
sidered by  itself;  although  I  believe  that  an  exam- 
ination of  all  the  passages  in  which  it  occurs  will 
show  that  it  is  invariably  applied  to  God  or  man, 
never  to  animal.  But  I  do  lay  special  stress  on 
the  verb  rendered  "  breathed,"  a  mysterious  act  of 
the  Creator,  which,  whatever  it  may  mean,  the 
Scripture  never  predicates  of  brutes.  Man  alone 
has  the  inspiration  of  Deity.  This  divine  in- 
breathing is  the  august  peculiarity  which  sepa- 
rates man  discretively  and  everlastingly  from  the 


gin. 


180  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

animal  creation.  Such  is  the  origin  of  man  as 
recorded  in  this  ancient  document.  Infinite  Deity 
was  his  maker.  On  his  body  side  he  sprang  from 
dust ;  on  his  soul  side  he  sprang  with  the  animals ; 
on  his  spirit  side  he  spmng  from  God.  Thus  in 
his  very  beginning,  in  the  original  make-up  of  him, 
man  was  a  religious  being.  Coming  into  existence 
as  Jehovah^s  inbreathing,  man  was,  in  the  very  fact 
of  being  divinely  inbreathed,  God's  son  and  image. 
I  never  read  the  closing  words  of  Luke's  account 
of  the  genealogy  of  our  Lord  without  a  thrill  of 
awe  at  the  remembrance  of  my  august  paternity : 
Lukeiii,38.  "The  SOU  of  Euos,  the  son  of  Seth,  the  son  of 
Adam,  the  son  of  God.''  Contrast,  young  gentle- 
men, this  paternity  with  tlie  ancestry  vouchsafed  us 
by  the  materialists — a  protoplastic  molecule,  an 
indivisible  atom. 

"  Hamlet,"  I,  2.  That  was,  to  this, 

Hyperion  to  a  satyr  I 

Sac  redness  of  Hcncc  it  is  that  the  human  body  is  such  a  sacred 
Body.  thing.     It  is  the  shrine  of  God's  Son,  God's  image, 

God's  likeness,  God's  spirit,  God's  breath.  As 
such  it  is  the  priceless  casket  of  unknown  sacred 
potentialities.  Let  not  the  philosopher  imagine 
that  he  has  gauged  the  measure  of  man's  capacities : 

1  John  iii, 2.  "It  is  uot  yct  manifest  what  we  shall  be."  Mean- 
while, we  have  been  told,  and  a  mighty  thing  it  is 
to  know,  that  the  human  body  is  that  Sanctuary  of 
sanctuaries  in  which  the  Divine  Spirit  is  enshrined. 

1  Cor.  vi,  19.  "-Know  ye  not  that  your  body  is  a  temple  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  which  is  in  you,  which  ye  have  from 
God."    Indeed,  so  sacred  is  the  human  body,  that  I 


THE   SIXTH    COMMANDMENT.  181 

am  almost  ready  to  say  that  the  mystic  Novalis 

hardly  exaggerates,  when  he  declares :   "  There  is  Novaii*. 

but  one  temple  in  the  world,  and  that  is  the  body 

of  man.     Nothing  is  holier  than  this  high  form. 

Bending  before  men  is  a  reverence  done  to  this 

revelation  in  the  ^esh.     AYe  touch  heaven,  when 

we   lay  our  hand  upon  a   human   body."     Aye, 

listen  to  the  golden-mouthed  himself:  "The  true  Chrysostom. 

Shechinah  is  man."     That  is  to  say :  man's  body 

is  the  true  glory-cloud  in  which  Deity  himself  may 

dwell  and  shine. 

And  now  we  are  prepared  for  the  Sixth  Com-  Murder  is  Sac 
mandment :  Thou  shaM  do  no  murder,  Exod.  xx",  13. 

For  murder  is,  in  the  intensest  sense  of  the  word, 
sacrilege.  It  is  not  only  a  crime  against  man :  it 
is  also  a  crime  against  God,  in  whose  image  man  is  Gen.  i,  26. 
made.  Think  not  that  this  expression — "  made  in 
God's  image " — belongs  only  to  the  good  :  it  be- 
longs also  to  the  bad.  Wherever  there  is  a  human 
being,  however  wicked,  there  is  an  image  of  God ; 
terribly  defaced  indeed,  but  not  altogether  effaced, 
in  spite  of  all  its  abrasion  and  corrosion,  still  bear- 
ing God's  image  and  superscription.  This  is  the 
very  argument  of  the  Apostle  James  when  denoun- 
cing sins  of  the  tongue :  "  Therewith  curse  we  men,  James  iu,  9, 
who  are  made  after  the  likeness  of  God."  That  is 
to  say,  to  curse  men  is  to  blaspheme  God ;  for  men 
are  made  in  God's  image.  In  like  manner,  to 
commit  murder  is  to  commit  sacrilege :  it  is  to 
shorten  man's  probation,  abridge  God's  day  of 
grace,  crush  out  all  possibilities  of  repentance,  for- 
giveness, salvation,  saintliness.  No  wonder  the 
16 


182  THE  TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

1  Cor.  iii,  17.  apostle  declares :  "  If  any  man  destroyeth  the  tem- 
ple of  God,  him  shall  God  destroy ;  for  the  temple 
of  God  is  holy,  which  temple  ye  are/'  Mm-der 
is  in  some  respects  the  darkest  form  of  sacrilege. 

Various  But  murder  may  be  of  varying  degrees  of  atroc- 

Murder!  ^^  %•     Accordingly,  let  us  now  glance  at  some  of  the 
various  forms  of  murder. 

Willful  Mur-       And,  first,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  born  of 
^^*  malice,  or  murder  in  the  common  acceptation  of 

the  term.  That  master  of  legal  learning.  Sir 
Edward  Coke,  three  centuries  ago,  defined  murder 
— 2L  definition  which,  I  believe,  still  holds  in  our 
courts  of  law — as  follows  :  "  Wlien  a  person  of 
sound  memory  and  discretion  unlawfully  killeth 
any  reasonable  creature  in  being,  and  under  the 
king's  peace,  with  malice  aforethought,  expressed 
or  implied."  Murder  of  this  kind,  whether  per- 
petrated swiftly,  as  by  the  bullet,  or  slowly,  as  by 
arsenic,  is  the  most  fiendish  of  crimes.  And 
nature,  in  an  especial  manner,  ever  waits  to  avenge 
it.  Nor  is  this  strange;  for,  as  we  have  seen,  man, 
on  his  body  side,  is  linked  with  the  material  crea- 
tion. The  same  elements  which  compose  our 
physical  organism  compose,  although  in  diiferent 
proportions,  the  water  we  drink ;  the  food  Ave  eat ; 
the  air  we  breathe;  the  dust  we  await.  Hence 
nature  herself  often  becomes  a  principal  factor  in 
the  detection  of  the  murderer.  She  ever  stands 
ready  to  be  murder's  avenger,  supplying  the  prose- 
cuting   attorney   with    her    re-agents,   even  with 

Gen.  It,  10.         blood-corpusclcs   thcmselvcs.      Aye,  the  voice   of 
our  brother's  blood  often  cries  unto  Jehovah  from 


THE   SIXTH    CO^ktMAXDMENT.  183 

tlie   very  ground.      And   so   the   royal    Dane   is 

right :  ^ 

Murder,  though  it  have  no  ton^e,  will  speak  ♦*  Hamlet,"  II,  2. 

With  most  miraculous  organ. 

Or,  as  Judea's  prophet  phrases  it : 

The  stone  shall  cry  out  of  the  wall,  Hab.  ii,  11. 

And  the  beam  out  of  the  timber  shall  answer  it. 

Again,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  born  of  Sudden  Mur- 
sudden  passion:  the  murder,  for  example,  of 
lynch-law,  when  a  mob  usurps  the  functions  of  a 
court  of  justice;  the  murder  of  sudden  vengeance, 
as  when  an  outraged  husband  encounters  and 
slays  the  destroyer  of  his  home;  the  murder  of 
manslaughter,  whether  voluntary  or  involuntary, 
whether  provoked  by  insult,  by  menace,  or  by 
alcohol.  I  have  neither  the  time  nor  the  subtility 
to  enter  into  the  many  delicate  distinctions  which 
the  law  makes  between  various  kinds  of  homicide. 
Nor  is  it  needful.  Enough  that  our  Sixth  Com- 
mandment divinely  forbids  the  taking  of  human 
life,  whether  slowly  or  suddenly,  whether  inten- 
tionally or  heedlessly. 

And  here  let  me,  in  passing,  seize  the  opportu-  Abolish  the 
nity  of  denouncing  the  practice  of  carrying  pocket 
pistols.  For,  as  I  believe,  the  invention  of  gun- 
powder is  the  most  satanic  of  inventions.  If  it 
were  not  for  the  pistol,  it  may  be  that  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  James  A.  Garfield  would  be  alive  to- 
day. I  believe  that,  next  to  alcohol  itself,  the 
pistol  is  the  most  frequent  occasion  of  murder. 
The  very  fact  that   a  man  knows  that  he  has  a 


184  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

pistol  in  his  pocket  tempts  him  to  act  the  bully 
Many  a  man  who  has  not  the  open  bravery  to 
strike  his  foe  with  his  fist  will  resort  to  the  cheap 
bravery  of  drawing  a  concealed  pistol,  and  cravenly 
take  advantage  of  forestalling  his  enemy's  unde- 
livered fire.  Young  gentlemen,  believe  me, 
nobody  but  a  coward  is  in  the  habit  of  carrying 
a  pocket  pistol.  If  you  are  so  very  brave,  why 
are  you  not  content  with  the  fist  which  nature  gave 
you?  But  let  me  return  to  the  point  in  hand — 
namely,  various  kinds  of  murder. 
Suicide.  Again,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  born  of 

despair.  Let  me  speak  gently  :  for  it  is  doubtless 
true  that  suicide  is  often  a  consequence  of  some 
form  of  insanity,  permanent  or  temporary.  Never- 
theless, let  us  not  be  too  sentimental  here :  for  even 
what  is  called  "insanity"  is  oftentimes  a  moral 
madness  rather  than  a  mental — a  species  of  mania 
for  which  the  sufferer  himself  is  to  blame.  And 
suicide,  when  committed  by  a  sane  person,  is 
murder.  Indeed,  how  often  the  tw^o  crimes  are 
committed  by  the  same  person — the  murderer  first 
slaying  his  victim,  then  slaying  himself.  I  remem- 
ber indeed  that  some  of  the  distinguished  ancients 
— ^for  instance,  Demosthenes,  Themistocles,  Han- 
nibal, Antony,  Cleopatra,  Brutus,  Cato  —  fell  by 
their  own  hands.  I  also  remember  that  suicide 
has  even  been  defended  by  some  able  modern 
writers,  for  example,  Madame  de  Stael,  Gibbon, 
and  Hume.  Nevertheless  the  general  judgment  of 
civilized  mankind,  and  especially  of  Christendom, 
has  pronounced  suicide  an  ignoble  crime.      Even 


THE    SIXTH    COMMANDMENT.  185 

heathen  Aristotle  declared:  "To  die  in  order  to  ^^iiJg,, 
avoid  the  pains  of  poverty,  or  anything  that  is 
disagreeable,  is  not  the  part  of  a  brave  man,  but 
of  a  coward;  for  it  is  cowardice  to  shun  the  trials 
and  crosses  of  life,  not  undergoing  death  because 
it  is  honorable,  but  to  avoid  evil."  Even  pagan 
Martial  sang : 

When  all  the  blandishments  of  life  are  gone,  Martial  XI,  nc, 

The  coward  sneaks  to  death,  the  brave  lives  on. 

Justly  does  the  law  pronounce  a  suicide  a  felo  de  se 
— that  is,  one  who  makes  a  felon  of  himself,  suicide 
being  felonious  self-murder. 

Again,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  bom  of  infanticide, 
shame :  I  mean  infanticide.  Let  me  speak  deli- 
cately, but  at  the  same  time  sternly:  for  we  are 
dealing  this  afternoon  with  a  sacred  theme,  even 
human  life,  and  I  must  not  be  too  dainty.  In- 
fanticide not  only  prevails  in  heathen  land,  it  being 
in  fact  one  of  the  sombre  tokens  of  barbarism. 
Alas!  infanticide,  pre-natal  as  well  as  post-natal, 
prevails  even  in  Christian  lands;  and  I  blush  to 
add,  this  crime  is  often  perpetrated  in  what  are 
called  the  upper  classes  of  society.  The  unborn 
infant,  as  I  believe,  is  already  a  person;  foeticide 
is  moral  murder. 

Again,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  born  of  Murderous 
harmful  occupations.  First  in  this  list  I  would  tions!^^^' 
put  the  dram  shop;  it  matters  not  that  the  killing 
is  &I0.W  ;.  the  killing  is  moral  murder ;  and  before 
every  saloon  I  would  post  a  placard  bearing  the 
Sinaitic  legend :  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill.''  Again, 
there  is  the  sale,  when  not  prescribed  by  the  physi- 


186  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

cian,  of  narcotic  drugs,  in  their  various  forms,  from 
opium  joints  to  chloral  drops.  Again,  there  are 
the  slow  murders  which  are  perpetrated  in  houses 
of  nameless  sin — murders  which  are  particularly 

1  Cor,  Ti,  15-20.  sacrilcgious,  because,  as  we  have  seen,  the  body  is 

-  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  let  me  in 
this^  connection  warn  you,  young  gentlemen, 
against  bodily  excesses  of  whatever  kind ;  for  all 
sins  against   the  body  have  a  suicidal  tendency. 

2  Peter  i,  6.        "  In  your   knowledge,"  says   the   Apostle  Peter, 

"supply   temperance" — that  is,  self-control,  self- 
mastery,  especially  in  the  matter  of  the  appetites, 
Cicero.  passions,  etc.     Cicero  long  ago  declared  that  "  a 

sensual  and  intemperate  youthhood  transmits  to  old 
age  a  worn-out  body."  And  a  wiser  than  Cicero 
had  already  said  : 

ProT.  xxiii,  1-3.  When  thou  sittest  to  eat  with  a  ruler, 

Consider  diligently  him  that  is  before  thee ; 

And  put  a  knife  to  thy  throat, 

If  thou  be  a  man  given  to  appetite. 

Be  not  desirous  of  his  dainties  ; 

Seeing  they  are  deceitful  meat. 

Even  so  sanitary  a  habit  as  gymnastic  exercise  may 
be  pushed  to  such  an  extreme  as  to  be  suicidal ; 
recall  the  premature  death  of  Wilkie  Collins' 
Geoffrey  Delamayn.  Let  Friedrich  von  Logau 
prescribe  for  us  the  best  medicines : 

"The  sinnge-  Joy,  and  Temperance,  and  Repose, 

*iichte."  Slam  the  door  on  the  doctor's  nose. 

Phil.  iv,5.  Let  your  moderation,  then,  be  known  unto  all 

icor.ix,  25.       men,  being  temperate  in  all  things.^ 

*  Horace  Bushnell,  speaking  of  the  disorganizing  effect  of  sin 
in  the  bpdy,  declares  :  "  How  the  vices  pf  the  appetites  and 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  187 

Again,  there  is  the  murder  which  is  born  of   Murderous 
thoughtlessness.     A    Mosaic    precept    is   still   in      lessnfss!^ 
point ;     "  When  thou  buildest  a  new  house,  then   Deut.  xxu,  s. 
thou  shalt  make  a  battlement  for  thy  roof,  that 
thou  bring  not  blood  upon  thy  house,  if  any  man 

passions  terminate  in  diseases  and  a  final  disorganization  of 
tlie  body  is  well  understood.  The  false  conjunction  made  by 
iutemperate  drink,  deluging  the  tissues  of  the  body  with  its 
liquid  poisons,  and  reducing  the  body  to  a  loathsome  wreck,  is 
not  peculiar  to  that  vice.  The  condition  of  sin  is  a  condition 
of  general  intemperance.  It  takes  away  the  power  of  self- 
government,  loosens  the  passions,  and  makes  even  the  natural 
appetite  for  food  an  Instigator  of  excess.  Indeed,  how  many 
of  the  sufferings  and  infirmities  even  of  persons  called  virtu- 
ous, are  known  by  all  intelligent  physicians  to  be  only  the 
groaning  of  the  body  under  loads  habitually  imposed,  by  the 
untempered  and  really  diseased  voracity  of  their  appetites. 
And  if  we  could  trace  all  the  secret  actions  of  causes,  how 
faithfully  would  the  fevers,  the  rheumatisms,  the  neuralgic 
and  hypochondriacal  torments,  all  the  grim-looking  woes  of 
dyspepsia,  be  seen  to  follow  the  unregulated  license  of  this 
kind  of  sin  1  Nor  Is  anything  better  understood  than  that 
whatever  vice  of  the  mind — wounded  pride,  unregulated  ambi- 
tion, hatred,  covetousness,  fear,  inordinate  care — throws  the 
mind  out  of  rest,  throws  the  body  out  of  rest  also.  Thus  it  is 
that  sin,  in  all  its  forms,  becomes  a  power  of  bodily  disturb- 
ance, shattering  the  nerves,  inflaming  the  tissues,  distempering 
the  secretions,  and  brewing  a  general  ferment  of  disease.  In 
one  view,  the  body  is  a  kind  of  perpetual  crystallization,  and 
the  crystal  of  true  health  cannot  form  itself  under  sin,  because 
the  body  has,  within,  a  perpetual  agitating  cause,  which  for- 
bids the  process.  If,  then,  looking  round  upon  the  great  field 
of  humanity,  and  noting  the  almost  universal  working  of 
disease,  in  so  many  forms  and  varieties  that  they  cannot  be 
named  or  counted,  we  sometimes  exclaim  with  a  sigh,  what  a 
hospital  the  world  is  I  we  must  be  dull  spectators,  if  we  stop 
at  this,  and  do  not  also  connect  the  remembrance  that  sin  is  in 
the  world — a  gangrene  of  the  mind,  poisoning  all  the  roots  of 
health,  and  making  visible  its  woes,  by  so  many  woes  of 
bodily  disease  and  death." — "  Nature  and  the  Supernatural," 
by  Horace  Bushnell,  Chapter  VI. 


188  THE   TEN   COMMAKDMENTS. 

fall  from  thence."  Translating  this  ancient  man- 
date from  the  sphere  of  Oriental  architecture  and 
custom  into  the  sphere  of  our  modern  American 
life,  the  mandate  reads  thus :  Whenever  you  build 
a  structure,  or  manage  a  corporation,  or  engage  in 
any  kind  of  transaction,  provide  beforehand  againsi 
the  possibility  of  injuring  the  life  or  health  of  any 
human  being ;  otherwise  you  may  be  guilty  of 
nmrder.  It  is  one  of  the  cheering  signs  of  the 
times  that  the  public  is  awakening  to  the  sense  of 
its  grave  responsibility  in  this  direction,  for  ex- 
ample, demanding  that  life  shall  not  be  imperiled 
by  the  failure  to  provide  substantial  structures, 
fire-escapes,  life  preservers,  railway  precautions, 
sanitary  arrangements  of  fresh  air  and  wholesome 
food  and  pure  water  and  clean  streets,  isolated 
refuges  for  sufferers  from  contagious  and  infectious 
diseases,  competent  physicians  and  druggists  and 
nurses,  sufficient  hours  for  rest  on  the  part  of 
operatives,  excursions  for  children,  sanitariums  for 
the  poor,  parks  and  recreation  grounds — in  brief, 
hygienic  regulations  in  general.  Thank  God, 
society  is  at  last  really  beginning  to  practice  what 
long  ago  it  crystallized  into  a  proverb:  "An 
ounce  of  prevention  is  worth  a  pound  of  cure.'' 
The  failure,  then,  to  provide  the  ounce  is,  in  light 
of  the  Mosaic  ordinance  touching  battlemented 
roofs,  to  incur  the  guilt  of  possible  murder.  Thus 
fundamental  and  far  reaching  is  the  Sixth  Com- 
mandment. 
Treatment  of  Before  leaving  this  part  of  our  topic,  let  me  say 
a  few  words  touchinoj  what  I  cannot  but  resrard  as 


Auinials. 


THE   SIXTH    COMMANDMENT. 


189 


a  murderous  treatment  of  animals.  For,  as  I 
have  said,  that  mysterious  force  which  we  vaguely 
call  "principle  of  life/^  and  which  the  Bible  dis- 
tinguishes from  spirit  by  calling  it  "soul,"  is  com- 
mon to  both  man  and  animal.  Ah !  little  we 
know  what  mystic  bonds  of  kinship  join  animal 
and  man.  How  humanlike  the  ways  of  the 
higher  forms  of  animals !  Whistle  to  your  de- 
voted Fido ;  see  how  joyously  he  bounds  toward 
you,  wagging  his  tail  in  nervous  ecstasy ;  how 
lovingly  he  rests  his  paw  and  head  on  your  knee. 
Speak  sharply  to  him ;  see  how  he  slinks  away, 
crestfallen  and  grieved.  What  Shylock,  protest- 
ing to  Salarino,  said  of  his  race,  you  may  say  of 
vour  Fido : 


Hath  he  not  eyes,  hath  he  not  organs,  dimensions,  senses, 
affections,  passions?  fed  with  the  same  food,  hurt  with  the 
same  weapons,  subject  to  the  same  diseases,  healed  by  the 
same  means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  winter  and  sum- 
mer, as  a  Christian  is  ?  if  you  prick  him,  doth  he  not  bleed? 
if  you  tickle  him,  doth  he  not  laugh  ?  if  you  poison  him,  doth 
he  not  die  ?  if  you  wrong  him,  will  he  not  revenge  ? 

No  wonder,  then,  that  IsraeFs  lawgiver,  in  pro- 
claiming to  his  people  the  code  dictated  to  him 
from  heaven,  guarded  so  jealously  the  sacredness 
of  animal  life.     Listen  : 


Merchant     oi 
Venice,"    III, 


Exod.  xxiii,  19. 
Lev.  xxii,  28. 


Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother's  milk.  Whether 
it  be  cow  or  ewe,  ye  shall  not  kill  it  and  her  young  both  in 
one  day.  If  a  bird's  nest  chance  to  be  before  thee  in  the  way,  Dent,  xxii,  6, 7 
in  any  tree  or  on  the  ground,  with  young  ones  or  eggs,  and  the 
dam  sitting  upon  the  young,  or  upon  the  eggs,  thou  shalt  not 
take  the  dam  with  the  young ;  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  let  the 
dam  go,  but  the  young  thou  mayest  take  unto  thyself,  that  it 
may  be  well  with  thee,  and  that  thou  mayest  prolong  thy  days. 
Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he  treadeth  out  the  corn —   Deut.  xxv,  4, 


190  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

1  Cor.  ix,  9;  1  a  prohibition  which  the  Apostle  Paul  twice  quotes 
approvingly. 

Accordingly,  I  must  speak  a  word  in  hearty 
praise  of  the  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty 
to  Animals.  Consign  not  that  gentle  institution  to 
tlie  limbo  of  sentimentalities.  For  it  is  but  carry- 
ing out  the  merciful  provision  divinely  fore- 
shadowed in  the  Mosaic  jurisprudence,  given  to 
mankind  through  the  Jew  while  Jehovah  was  still 
his  direct  teacher.  Promptly  report,  then,  to  the 
proper  authorities  every  instance  of  cruelty. 
Allow  me  also  to  allude  to  the  practice  of  vivi- 
section. I  do  not  profess  to  be  a  scientist;  and 
therefore  it  does  not  become  me  to  discuss  the 
question  in  its  scientific  aspect;  indeed,  I  am 
ready  to  admit  that  vivisection  has  probably  con- 
tributed not  a  little  to  physiological  and  psychologi- 
cal science.  But  I  do  profess  to  be  a  teacher  of 
morals ;  and  therefore  I  lift  up  my  voice  in  em- 
phatic protest  against  all  vivisection  which  is  not 
conducted  by  acknowledged,  conscientious,  humane 
scientists.  I  am  glad  to  state  that  years  ago  the 
Trustees  of  our  University  of  Pennsylvania 
ordered  that  no  vivisection  shall  be  allowed,  ex- 
cept when  deemed  necessary  by  a  competent 
instructor  and  conducted  in  his  presence.  Ah ! 
young  gentlemen,  here  is  the  delicate,  telling  test 
of  civilization ;  the  way  that  we  treat,  not  our 
superiors,  but  our  inferiors.  The  gentleman  is  a 
gentle-man. 

";.  w]>er's  I  would  not  enter  on  my  list  of  friends 

(Though  graced  with  polished  manners  and  fine  sense, 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  191 

Yet  wanting  sensibility)  the  man 
Who  needlessly  sets  foot  upon  a  worm. 
An  inadvertent  step  may  crush  the  snail 
That  crawls  at  evening  in  the  public  path ; 
But  he  that  hath  humanity,  forewarned, 
Will  tread  aside,  and  let  the  reptile  live. 

The  killino^  of  an  albatross  in  the  South  Seas 
has  laid  the  foundation  for  one  of  the  most  touch- 
ing ballads  in  English  literature.  What  is  tlie 
"Kime  of  the  Ancient  Mariner"  but  a  poet's  de- 
fense of  the  truth  that  animals  have  souls  ? 

Farewell,  Farewell  1  but  this  I  tell  "The    Ancieni 

To  thee,  thou  Wedding  Guest !  Mariner." 

He  prayeth  well,  who  loveth  well 

Both  man  and  bird  and  beast. 
He  prayeth  best,  who  loveth  best 

All  things  both  great  and  small ; 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 

He  made  and  loveth  all. 

Or,  as  Robert  Browning  expresses  it : 

God  made  all  the  creatures  and  gave  them  our  love  and  our   Browning's 
„  "Saul.'^ 

fear. 

To  give  sign,  we  and  they  are  his  children,  one  family  here. 

"  Ah !  this,"  you  tell  me,  "  is  poetry."  Listen, 
then,  to  the  calm  words  of  Louis  Agassiz,  in  his 
profound  treatise  entitled  "Essay  on  Classifica- 
tion": 

Most  of  the  arguments  of  philosophy  in  favor  of  the  immor-  Professor 
tality  of  man  apply  equally  to  the  permanency  of  the  immaterial  Agassiz. 
principle  in  other  living  beings.  May  I  not  add  that  a  future 
life  in  which  man  should  be  deprived  of  that  great  source  of 
enjoyment  and  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  which  re- 
sults from  the  contemplation  of  the  harmonies  of  an  organic 
world  would  involve  a  lamentable  loss?  And  may  we  not 
look  to  a  spiritual  concert  of  the  combined  worlds  and  all 
their  inhabitants  in  presence  of  their  Creator  as  the  highest 
conception  of  paradise  ? 


192  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Christ's  Ex-       And  now  let  US  ponder  Christ's  iDterpretation  of 
gSlh°Com-  the  law  against  murfer: 

mandment. 
Matt.  V,  21,  22.       Te  have  heard  that  it  was  said  to  them  of  old  time,  Thou 

Shalt  not  kill,  and  whosoever  shall  kill  shall  be  in  danger  of 
the  judgment ;  but  I  say  unto  you,  that  every  one  who  is 
angry  with  his  brother  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment ; 
and  whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Raea,  shall  be  in  dan- 
ger of  the  council  ;  and  whosoever  shall  say.  Thou  fool,  shall 
be  in  danger  of  the  hell  of  fire. 

There  are  two  ways  of  regarding  the  law  against 
murder. 
The  Rabbins'       First,  the  wav  in  which  the   rabbins  regarded 

Defluition  .  rr^^  T      1     •  1  r> 

of  Murder,  it.  They  expounded  it  as  a  letter,  a  matter  oi  out- 
ward conduct  belonging  to  the  domain  of  the 
senses,  a  statute  for  the  security  of  life  and  limb — 
in  short,  a  civic  ordinance  for  the  peace  and  wel- 
fare of  society.  Thus  regarding  it,  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees  were  faultless  touching  the  law  against 
murder.  Wliat  though  they  allowed  any  amount 
of  verbal  vituperation,  tirelessly  interjecting  their 
talk  with  exclamations  of  Raca  (Blockhead !) 
and  Moreh  (Fool  !).  Surely  there  was  no  mur- 
der in  that.  What  they  sternly  forbade  was  the 
overt  act  of  murder.  Thus,  touching  the  letter  of 
the  Sixth  Commandment,  they  were  righteous, 
obeying  it  in  all  strictest  exactitude.     And  yet  the 

Matt.  V,  20.  Lord  of  Righteousness  told  his  disciples  that  except 
their  righteousness  exceeded  that  of  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  they  should  in  no  wise  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  heaven. 

Christ's  Defi-       And  SO  we  pass  to  consider  the  other  way  of  un- 

Murder?        derstanding  the  law  against  murder — namely,  the 

way  in  which  the  Divine  Man  defined  it :  "  But  I 


THE   SIXTH   COMMAXDMENT.  193 

say  unto  you,  that  every  one  who  is  angry  with  his 
brother  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  judgment,  and 
whosoever  shall  say  to  his  brother,  Thou  simpleton, 
shall  be  in  danger  of  the  council ;  and  whosoever 
shall  say.  Thou  fool,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  hell 
of  fire.''  Each  clause  of  the  Great  Teacher's  doc- 
trine of  murder  demands  comment. 

"  But  I  say  unto  you."  How  imperial  the  dig-  "  But  i  Sav 
nity  with  which  this  untitled  Teacher  from  Naza- 
reth plants  himself  against  the  authorized  teachers 
of  the  law,  joining  issue,  be  it  carefully  observed, 
not  with  Moses,  but  with  the  scribes — the  interpre- 
ters of  Moses — calmly  overturning  the  misinterpre- 
tations of  centuries :  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was 
said  to  them  of  old  time;  but  I  say  unto  you"! 
Not  that  he  undertakes  to  amend  the  Mosaic 
statute  by  way  of  supplement :  he  simply  expounds 
the  Mosaic  statute,  unfolding  the  spirit  in  the 
letter ;  and  so  he  truly  fulfills  it.  For  he  came  not  Matt,  v,  17. 
to  destroy  the  law  or  the  prophets,  but  to  fulfill. 

"  Every  one  who  is  angry  with  his  brother."  "  Angry  with 
Does  the  DiviDC  Man  then  forbid  all  anger  ?    Cer-      er." 
tainly    not.       His    own    apostle    Paul    expressly 
commands:    "Be  ye  angry,  and   sin  not."     The  Eph.iv, 26. 
wrath-faciilty   is   one  of   the   inborn,  constituent 
faculties  which  the  Creator  himself  has  implanted 
in  our  moral  nature.     In  fact,  it  is  a  positive  sin 
to  look,  for  example,  on  a  scene  of  injustice,  or 
oppression,  or  cruelty  to  man  or  beast,  and  not  feel 
angry.     How   often   did   such  scenes   arouse   the 
anger  of  earth's  one  Perfect  Man  !     For  instance : 
Do  the  Pharisees  of  Capernaum  complain  that  he  Mark  m,  1-5. 
17 


194  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

has    healed   the    man    with    the    withered    hand 
on    the   Sabbath     day?     He   looks    round    about 
on  them  with  anger,  being   grieved  at  the  hard- 
Mark  x,i3-i6.     ening  of  their  heart.     Again:     Do  the  disciples, 
in  the  spirit  of  an  officious  and  stupid  reverence, 
rebuke    the    fond    parents   of    Perea    for   bring- 
ing  their    little   ones  to   him   that    he   may   put 
his  hands   upon   them  and   bless   them   with    his 
prayer?     He  is  moved  with  indignation.     In  fact, 
nothing    angered     him    more    than     pretentious 
morality  or  icy  cant:  and  this  just  because  he  was 
perfect.     Just  wrath  :  what  is  it  but  love  itself  at 
white  heat?     I  know  no  expression  in  the  Bible 
Rev.  vi.iG.         more  awful  than  this  :  ^'  The  wrath  of  the  Lamb." 
I  am  less  afraid  of  the  anger  of  the  Lion  of  the 
tribe  of  Judah  than  of  the  wrath  of  God^s  Lamb. 
What,    then,  is   the   anger   which    the   Mountain 
Teacher   forbids  ?     Evidently    unreasonable,    pas- 
sionate, protracted,  revengeful  anger.     Let  us  get 
a  hint  of  the  Lord's  meaning  from  the  saying  of 
£ph. iv, 26, 27.     liis  apostle  which   I  have  just  quoted:    "Be  ye 
angry,  and  sin  not ;  let  not  the  sun  go  down  upon 
your    -wrath ;    neither   give   place   to   the   devil." 
What  thouo^h  vour  ano^er  over  a  scene  of  wrono^  is 
instinctive  and  just?     Do  not  brood  over  it,  incu- 
bating anger  into  malice,  "  nursing  the  wrath  to 
keep  it  warm."     Let  not  the  sun   go  down  u^n 
your  wrath ;  lest  in  nursing  the  wrath,  you  give 
"  The    Judg-  place  to  the  devil. 
'' TheCouD-       "  Shall  be  in   danger  of  the  judgment,"   "  the 
Hdi  of ^^^  council,"  "  the  hell  of  fire."     The  phraseology  is 
Fire."  Jewish.     The  "judgment"  was   the  local    court. 


•   THE  SIXTH   COMMAXD:\rEXT.  195 

The  '*  council  '*  was  the  Sauhedriu.  The  ^'  hell  of 
fire"  was  the  fire  in  the  hideous  gorge  on  the  south 
of  Jerusalem,  variously  called  Hinuom,  Tophet, 
Gehenna.  But  although  the  Lord's  phraseology- 
was  Jewish,  his  meaning  was  for  all  men  and  for 
all  time.  "  Judgment," '*  council,"  "  Gehenna  of 
fire":  these  are  but  symbols  of  a  fate  intensely 
fiercer,  even  the  second  death.  And  what  our 
Lord  teaches  is  this :  Whoever  is  angry  with  his 
brother  is  in  danger  of  this  second  death.  That  is 
to  say :  Causeless  or  unreasonable  anger,  whether 
expressed  or  unexpressed,  is  virtual  murder,  and, 
as  such,  exposes  him  who  cherishes  it  to  the  doom 
of  the  everlasting  Gehenna.  Does  this  seem  to  be 
an  extreme  interpretation  of  the  Great  Teacher's 
saying?  Listen,  then,  to  the  disciple  whom  Jesus 
loved,  even  him  who  himself  was  the  apostle  of 
love:  *^ Whosoever  hateth  his  brother  is  a  mur-  uohnm,  15. 
derer :  and  ye  know  that  no  murderer  hath  eternal 
life  abiding  in  him." 

You  see,  then,  how  intensely  radical  is  Christ's  Murder  a 

.  A     1       -»«-        .     1  1  .  1  Staterathei 

interpretation  of  the  Mosaic  law  touching  murder.  thananAct. 
According  to  him,  murder  is  not  a  matter  of  out- 
ward act,  but  of  inward  feeling :  not  a  question  of 
standing  before  the  community,  but  of  character 
before  the  All-seeinp;.  No  murder  was  ever  com- 
mitted which  did  not  begin  in  the  heart.  "Out  of  Matt,  xv,  19. 
the  heart  come  forth  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adul- 
teries, thefts,  false  witness,  railings."  And  in  thus 
looking  at  the  germ  rather  than  at  the  fruit,  Jesus 
Christ  proved  himself  to  be  a  philosopher  indeed. 
A  moment's  reflection  will  convince  you   of  the 


196  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

difference  between  single,  deliberate  acts  of  voli- 
tion and  the  general  current  or  tendency  of  the 
moral  life ;  of  the  former  we  are  conscious,  of  the 
latter  we  are  not  conscious,  except  as  our  attention 
is  particularly  directed  to  it.  And  yet  it  is  the 
latter  which  originates  or  is  the  basis  of  the  former. 
To  illustrate :  A  deliberately,  with  malice  prepense, 
shoots  B  and  kills  him.  Suppose  you  are  to  sit  in 
moral  judgment  on  the  case,  and  endeavor  to 
ascertain  the  actual  guilt  of  the  transaction  as  that 
transaction  appears  before  the  All-seeing.  If  I 
mistake  not,  you  will  find  here  two  distinct  ele- 
ments of  guilt.  First,  there  is  the  deliberate  voli- 
tion— the  conscious  criminal  intent  to  murder. 
And,  secondly,  there  is  the  nature  capable  of 
originating  and  harboring  such  an  intention.  Be- 
neath the  surface  of  acts,  and  passions,  and  inten- 
tions, and  volitions — things  of  which  he  was  con- 
scious— there  is  a  deep  undercurrent  of  guilt,  a 
profoundly  criminal  nature  or  tendency,  of  which 
he  may  or  may  not,  at  any  given  instant,  have 
been  conscious.  Your  verdict,  then,  after  a 
thorough  investigation  of  the  moral  elements  of 
the  case,  will  be  this :  Guilty  as  this  man  is,  in  that 
he  intended  to  murder,  he  is  still  guiltier  in  that 
he  has  a  nature  which  is  capable  of  giving  birth  to 
such  an  intention.  Judging  him  in  the  forum  of 
God^s  vision,  where  sin  is  surveyed,  not  as  fruit, 
but  as  germ,  not  as  it  seems,  but  as  it  is,  you  feel 
that  the  chief  element  of  this  man's  guilt  lies,  not 
in  his  intent  to  murder,  but  in  his  having  a  nature 
capable  of  originating  and  cherishing  a  murderous 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  197 

intent.  That  is  to  say:  The  murder  lay  neitlier  in 
the  pistol,  nor  in  the  hand  that  fired  the  pistol,  nor 
even  in  the  volition  that  directed  the  hand  to  fire 
the  pistol ;  the  murder  lay  in  the  nature  capable  of 
the  volition  to  move  the  hand  to  fire  the  pistol. 
You  feel  that  in  God^s  judgment  it  would  have 
made  but  little  difference  whether  the  man  had 
ever  actually  committed  the  murder  or  not.  In 
God's  sigiit  the  murder  was  in  the  nature;  and 
this  before  the  man  himself  became  conscious  of  it 
through  his  murderous  desire,  purpose,  and  deed. 
If,  then,  every  one  who  is  angry  with  his  brother  is 
a  murderer,  how  many  embryo  a  jassins  there  are 
all  around  us ;  aye,  it  may  be  in  our  own  bosoms ! 
Who  of  us  has  kept  the  Sixth  Commandment  as 
the  Divine  Man  has  interpreted  it?  Who  of  us 
has  not  been  angry,  passionate,  revengeful,  petu- 
lant ?  Remembering,  then,  these  quarrels  of  ours, 
these  grudges  and  piques  and  faults  of  temper, 
who  of  us  is  not  in  danger  of  the  eternal  Gehenna? 

But  we   are   not   yet  through  with  the   Sixth  Christ's  D6c 
Commandment.      Although    it   is   prohibitive   in      giveness. 
form,  saying,  Thou  shalt  not  kill,  yet  it  is  af- 
firmative in  spirit,  saying.  Thou  shalt  lave.     Let 
us  pass,  then,  to  Christ's  doctrine  of  perfection  : 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a  Matt.  v.  38-48. 
tooth  for  a  tooth  :  but  I  say  unto  you,^  Kesist  not  him  that  is 
evil :  but  whosoever  smlteth  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to 
him  the  other  also.  And  if  any  man  would  go  to  law  with 
thee,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also. 
And  whQSOever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  one  mile,  go  with  him 
twaip.  GiiVe  to  him  that  asketh  thee,  and  from  him  that  would 
borrow  of  thee  turn  not  thou  away.  Te  have  heard  that  it  was 
said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  and  hate  thine  enemy ,  but 


198  THE  TEX  COMMANDMENTS. 

I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies,  and  pray  for  them  that  per- 
secute  you;  that  ye  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  who  is  in 
heaven :  for  he  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil  and  the 
good,  and  sendeth  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust.  For  if  ye 
love  them  that  love  you,  what  reward  have  ye?  do  not  even  the 
publicans  the  same?  And  if  ye  salute  your  brethren  only, 
what  do  ye  more  than  others  ?  do  not  even  the  Gentiles  the 
same  ?  Ye  therefore  shall  be  perfect,  as  your  heavenly  Father 
is  perfect. 

"uto^fanT"  ''-^"^  ^^  °^^  ^^"^  Utopian?''  I  hear  you  asking. 
"Can  it  be  that  our  Lord  really  intended  that 
these  precepts  should  be  carried  into  practical  ef- 
fect? Am  I  never  to  resist  the  evil-doer?  If  a 
man  does  me  bodily  injury,  am  I  to  submit  quietly, 
and  even  expose  myself  to  further  insult  and  out- 
rage? If  a  man  at  variance  with  me  determines 
to  wrest  from  me,  by  legal  processes,  a  certain 
property,  am  I  to  yield  without  a  struggle,  and 
even  more  beside,  adding  to  the  coat  which  he 
asserts  he  will  have,  the  cloak  which  he  does 
not  even  claim?  If  Government  imposes  on  me 
unreasonable  burdens  in  respect  either  to  person 
or  to  property,  am  I  to  obey  without  protest,  and 
even  offer  twice  the  amount  demanded  ?  If  a 
stranger,  or  a  beggar,  or  a  professional  borrower 
asks  me  for  money,  am  I  to  grant,  without  hesita- 
tion, his  request?  Were  I  to  do  such  things,  would 
it  not  make  me  the  vassal  and  caitiff  of  anybody  and 
everybody  who  chose  to  wrong  me,  or  insult  me, 
or  lord  it  over  me  ?  Were  the  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  do  such  things,  would  it  not  derange  all 
business  and  social  relations,  and  eventually  up- 
heave the  very  foundations  of  society  itself? 
In   brief,  is   not  thjs   teacbjug   of  the  Nazarene 


THE  SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  199 

Utopian?''  Such,  doubtless,  is  the  feeling  of 
many  a  true  disciple  as  he  ponders  these  pre- 
cepts of  his  heavenly  Master.  He  cannot  quite 
accept  them  in  the  fullness  of  their  apparent 
meaning,  and  so  he  instinctively  searches  for 
some  interpretation  which  shall  somehow  tone 
down  their  severity.  And  as  for  the  unbe- 
liever, he  has  more  than  once  paraded  these 
precepts  as  a  signal  evidence  that  the  Man  of 
Nazareth,  however  gentle  and  pure,  was  never- 
theless a  visionary  and  an  extremist.  It  be- 
comes us,  then,  as  pupils  of  the  Divine  Teacher, 
to  sit  reverently  at  his  feet,  and,  in  the  spirit 
of  a  special  docility,  ask  him  to  explain  to  us 
more  fully  what  he  means  when  he  bids  us  not 
to  resist  the  evil-doer,  but  love  our  enemies,  do 
good  to  them  that  hate  us,  bless  them  that  curse 
us,  and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully  use  us. 

Of  course,  we  have  not  time  to  study  all  these  Christ's  Doc- 
precepts.  Let  me  select  for  specific  comment  and  No^n-Resis- 
application  Christ's  doctrine  of  non-resistance:  tance. 

Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye,  and  a   Matt,  v,  38, 39. 
tooth  for  a  tooth.    But  I  say  unto  you,  Resist  not  him  that  is 
evil :  but  whosoever  smiteth  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to 
him  the  other  also. 

"Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  an  eye  for  an  Mosaic  Xe  a? 
eye,  and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth."  Not  only  did  the 
rabbins  say  this;  Moses  himself  had  said  it:  "Life  Exod.xxi,23-25. 
for  life,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  hand  for  hand, 
foot  for  foot,  burning  for  burning,  wound  for 
wound,  stripe  for  stripe."  This  lex  talionis  was 
not  peculiar  to  Moses ;  it  was  distinctly  recognized 


200  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

in  the  legislation  of  the  Greek  Solon,  and  in  the 
Twelve  Tables  of  the  Roman  forum.  It  has  a 
striking  illustration  in  our  own  day  and  land,  in 
the  penalty  of  capital  punishment — a  penalty 
which  is  the  exact  reproduction  of  the  Mosaic 
legislation — eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth,  life  for 
life.  But  aithouo-h  the  law  of  retaliation  is  a 
venting  of  the  instinct  of  justice,  it  is  but  a  rude 
venting.  It  is  a  clumsy  attempt  to  subsidize  in 
behalf  of  society  the  capacity  for  pain.  It  is  at 
best  but  a  sort  of  mechanical  equivalent,  an  awk- 
ward endeavor  to  express  moral  equilibrium  in 
physical  terms.  Young  gentlemen,  the  theory  of 
equivalents  holds  better  in  chemistry  than  in 
ethics;  for  morals  are  not  a  matter  of  the  micro- 
meter or  the  balance.  But  let  me  not  be  diverted 
from  the  point  in  hand.  Moses  did  assert  the  law 
of  retaliation.  But  the  scribes,  in  interpreting 
Moses,  were  not  content  with  applying  the  statute 
of  retaliation  to  the  sphere  for  which  their  great 
lawgiver  meant  it — the  sphere  of  public  offenses: 
they  dragged  it  into  the  sphere  of  private  quarrels. 
They  debased  a  civic  statute  into  a  personal  pre- 
rogative. 
"Resist  Not  And  now  listen  to  the  Divine  Man  himself: 
iMatt  v,'39.  *'But  I  say  unto  you,  Resist  not  him  that  is  evil  " 
(that  is,  him  who  has  wronged  you)*  Remember, 
however,  that  there  is  a  difference  between  civic  life 
and  private  life,  between  our  duties  as  citizens  and 
our  duties  as  men.  Do  not  suppose,  then,  that  be- 
cause our  Master  forbade  all  private  avengement, 
he  therefore  meant  to  overthrow  all  legal  institu- 


THE   SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  201 

tions  and  penalties.  Tlie  lex  talionisy  whether,  as 
in  Mosaic  days,  in  the  stern  form  of  literal  equiva- 
lent— eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth — or,  as  in  our 
own  days,  in  the  milder,  commuted  form  of  fine 
and  imprisonment,  is  a  civic  law,  concerning  us  as 
subjects  of  human  government,  not  as  subjects  of 
the  divine.  While  humanity  remains  as  imperfect 
as  it  is,  the  law  of  retaliation,  in  some  form  or 
another,  is  perhaps  essential  to  the  welfare  of  so- 
ciety. But  then  it  was  one  of  the  peculiarities  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  he  always  and  distinctly  dis- 
claimed being  in  any  sense  a  political  lawgiver. 
He  never  allowed  himself  to  be  drawn  into  civil 
disputes.  Do  Pharisees  and  Herodians  come  to  Matt.xxu,i5-22. 
him  with  the  question,  "  Is  it  lawful  to  give  tribute 
unto  Caesar  or  not  ? "  he  declines  to  commit  him- 
self, but  simply  replies :  ^'  Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Csesar^s  ;  and  unto  God  the  things 
that  are  God^s."  For  Jesus  Christ  had  something 
greater  to  do  than  to  teach  even  so  great  a  thing  as 
statesmanship.  Enactments  are  local  and  transient  ; 
ethics  are  universal  and  abiding.  To  the  Divine 
Teacher  the  citizen  was  lost  in  somethino^  vaster, 
even  the  man.  He  did  not  argue  from  citizenship 
up  to  manhood ;  he  argued  from  manhood  down  to 
citizenship.  He  knew  that  if  the  man  was  right, 
the  citizen  would  be  right  also.  He  regulated  the 
watch,  not  by  moving  the  hands,  but  by  touching 
the  mainspring.  Take  a  single  example.  On  a  Luke  xu,  13-21, 
certain  occasion,  a  man  in  the  throng  said  to  him, 
"Master,  bid  my  brother  divide  the  inheritance 
with  me.''     But  Jesus  said  unto  him:  "Man,  who 


202  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

made  me  a  judge  or  a  divider  over  you  ?  "  Then 
turning  to  the  group  standing  around,  he  added : 
"  Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covet- 
ousness :  for  a  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the 
abundance  of  the  things  which  he  possesseth  ;  *'  and 
then  he  pronounced  his  parable  of  the  Rich  Fool. 
Thus  he  declined  all  political  interference,  content 
to  let  laws  stay  or  go  as  the  times  should  demand, 
while  he  set  himself  to  the  mightier  task  of  right- 
ing the  radical,  abiding  elements  of  our  nature. 
Do  not,  then,  infer  that,  because  he  forbade  all 
private  vindication,  he  meant  to  forbid  ail  civic  re- 
dress and  penalty.  He  struck  deeper  than  any 
civic  statutes  ;  he  struck  at  that  fallen  nature  which 
makes  civic  statutes  needful.  And  here  comes  out 
one  of  the  many  differences  between  the  lawgiver 
who  wrote  his  commandments  on  tables  of  stone 
and  the  Lawgiver  w^ho  writes  his  commandments 
on  tables  of  heart.  Moses  taught  an  institutional 
religion — a  religion  of  condition  ;  Jesus  taught  a 
personal  religion — a  religion  of  character.  Moses 
legislated  with  reference  to  building  up  a  common- 
wealth; Jesus  legislated  with  reference  to  building 
up  man  :  for  he  knew  that  the  best  way  to  build 
up  a  commonwealth  is  by  building  up  men — man 
by  man.  When,  therefore,  in  opposition  to  the 
Mosaic  statute  of  civic  retaliation,  he  bids  us  not 
resist  the  evil-doer,  he  addresses  you  and  me,  not 
as  citizens,  but  as  men ;  not  as  subjects  of  civil 
government,  but  as  Christians,  citizens  of  his 
spiritual  kingdom.  And  now  let  us  apply  his 
mandate  of  non-retaliation  in  practical  directions. 


THE  SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  203 

"  Whosoever  smiteth  thee  on  thy   right  cheek,  The   Smitten 

•^        ®  /        Cheek. 

turn  to  him  the  other  also."  Are  we  to  talve  this 
literally?  Certainly  not.  For  this  would  be  to 
interpret  Jesus  rabbinically,  even  as  the  scribes  had 
interpreted  Moses.  This  scrupulous  literalism  it  is 
which  mars  the  ethical  writings  of  that  remarkable 
author,  Count  Tolstoi,  especially  his  book  entitled 
*•  My  Religion. '^  No ;  Christ's  own  behavior, 
when  arraigned  before  Annas,  proves  that  he  did 
not  mean  that  his  precept  is  to  be  taken  literally. 
One  of  the  officers  who  was  standing  by  struck  John xviii,22,23. 
Jesus  with  his  hand,  saying,  "  Answerest  thou  the 
high  priest  so?"  Jesus  answered  him:  "If  I 
hav^e  spoken  evil,  bear  witness  of  the  evil ;  but  if 
well,  why  smitest  thou  me?"  Thus  even  the 
Divine  Proclaimer  of  our  precept  did  not  literally 
turn  the  other  cheek.  Had  he  done  so,  he  might 
have  achieved  nothing  more  than  to  provoke 
toward  himself  additional  brutality.  Nevertheless, 
even  here  he  did  not  resist  the  evil-doer:  he  con- 
tented himself  with  dignified  expostulation.  And 
herein  he  is  our  example  as  well  as  the  interpreter 
of  his  own  precept.  Ah  !  young  friends,  one  may 
obey  the  letter  of  our  Lord's  precept,  and  yet  disobey 
its  spirit.  At  the  very  time  he  is  offering  the 
outer  cheek,  he  may  be  withholding  the  inner. 
The  point  will  be  illustrated  best  by  two  anecdotes 
which  I  take  from  a  British  periodical. 
The  first  story  is  this : 

Many  years  ago  an  eminent  minister  of  the  gospel,  who  had  "The^  Exposi- 
been  a  great  athlete  in  his  youth,  on  returning  to  his  native  pp.'  139^  lio.  ' 
town  soon  after  he  had  been  ordained,  encountered  in   the 


204  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

High  Street  an  old  companion  whom  he  had  often  fought  and 
thrashed  in  his  godless  days.  "  So  you've  turned  Christian, 
they  tell  me,  Charley?"  said  the  man.  "Yes,"  replied  the 
minister.  "  Well,  then,  you  know  the  Book  says,  If  you're 
struck  on  one  cheek,  you're  to  turn  the  other.  Take  that! " 
and  with  that  hit  him  a  stinging  blow.  "  There,  then," 
replied  the  minister,  quietly  turning  the  other  side  of  his  face 
toAvard  him.  The  man  was  brute  enough  to  strike  him  heavily 
again.  Whereupon  the  minister  said  :  "  And  there  my  com- 
mission ends,"  pulled  oflf  his  coat,  and  gave  his  antagonist  a 
severe  thrashing,  which  no  doubt  he  richly  deserved. 

The  other  story  is  this : 

It  is  told  of  a  celebrated  officer  in  the  army  that,  as  he  stood 
leaning  over  a  wall  in  the  barrack  yard,  one  of  his  military 
servants,  mistaking  him  for  a  comrade,  came  softly  up  behind 
him,  and  suddenly  struck  him  a  hard  blow.  When  the  officer 
looked  round,  his  servant,  covered  with  confusion,  stammered 
out :  *'  I  beg  your  pardon,  sir ;  I  thought  it  was  George." 
His  master  gently  replied  :  "  And  if  it  were  George,  why  strike 
so  hard  ? " 

Now,  young  gentlemen,  which  of  these  two, 
think  you,  obeyed  our  Master's  precept  touching 
the  smitten  cheek  the  more  completely  :  the  min- 
ister who  kept  the  letter,  or  the  officer  who  kept 
the  spirit  ?  Do  you  not  see  that  literal  obedience 
is  sometimes  virtual  disobedience,  and  that  literal 
disobedience  is  sometimes  virtual  obedience? 

Question  of  But  let  me  apply  our  Lord's  precept  still  more 
fense!"  ^"  Specifically.  Take,  for  example,  the  case  of  per- 
sonal assault.  A  man,  without  provocation,  strikes 
you.  What  shall  you  do?  Strike  back  again? 
Society  says  "  Yes ;  if  not  directly  with  your  own 
fist,  at  least  indirectly  through  the  law.''  Jesus 
Christ  says :  "  No  ;  resist  not  the  evil-doer."     Or, 

Rom.  xii,  21.  as  his  apostle  says :  "  Overcome  evil  with  good." 
Expostulate    with     your    evil-doer.       Tell    him 


THE  SIXTH   COMMANDMENT.  205 

bravely,  but  lovinglv,  that  you  are  a  Christian 
man,  a  follower  of  the  Nazarene ;  that  you  think 
it  wicked  to  retaliate;  that  your  Master  has  ex- 
pressly forbidden  it.  And  ninty-niue  cases  out  of 
a  hundred,  believe  me,  friend,  you  will  completely 
disarm  him  (if  he  is  sober),  and  hereafter  you  will 
be  as  safe  from  him  as  though  he  had  been  sen- 
tenced for  life  to  the  penitentiary,  or,  for  that 
matter,  to  the  gallows. 

Again:  let  me  apply  our  Lord's  precept  to  the  Question  of 
case  of  war.  Suppose  a  foreign  power  should 
invade  us;  or,  worse  still,  another  secession  from 
our  American  Union  be  attempted.  How  ought 
we  as  a  Christian  people  to  meet  the  difiBculty  ?  I 
do  not  like  to  make  absolute  promises;  for  I  am 
finite  and  fallible,  and  may  see  just  occasion  for 
changing  my  mind.  But  as  I  feel  to-day,  listen- 
ing to  him  who  taught  as  man  never  spake,  I  do  John -m,  46. 
not  tliink  that  I  can  ever  defend  another  war.  No 
man  can  go  beyond  me  in  my  admiration  and  even 
reverence  for  the  patriotism,  the  courage,  the  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  noble  thousands  who  so  sublimely 
braved  every  sort  of  hardship  and  peril  in  defense 
of  our  glorious  country.  All  honor  to  the  illus- 
trious dead !  All  honor  to  their  illustrious  sur- 
vivors! Nevertheless  we  are  living  under  God's 
government;  and  one  of  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  his  administration  is  progress,  or,  if  you 
please,  evolution.  Accordingly,  what  was  rela- 
tively right  once  may  be  relatively  wrong  now. 
Because  war  was  right  under  the  old  covenant  of 
Sinai,  it  does  not  follow  that  war  is  right  under 


206  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  new  covenant  of  Calvary.  The  Geneva  arbi- 
tration has  done  wonders  in  shedding  light  on 
such  precepts  as  this  of  the  smitten  cheek ;  for  it 
has  shown  how  wars  may  be  averted,  and  yet  the 
national  honor  be  kept  unstained.  Young  gentle- 
men, the  time  is  fast  coming  when,  in  the  judg- 
ment of  Christendom,  no  nation  will  ever  be 
justified  in  resorting  to  war  except  after  every 
attempt  at  peaceful  arbitration  has  been  liioroughly 
tried.  Aye,  the  time  is  fast  passing  by  when 
statesmen  will  any  longer  cherish  the  juvenile, 
grotesque,  barbarous  fancy  that  a  moral  question 
of  right  and  wrong  can  ever  be  settled  by  gunnery. 
If  you  were  materialists,  and  really  believed  that 
the  national  honor  consists  in  a  peculiarly  deft 
arrangement  of  molecules,  then  you  could  consist- 
ently defend  the  national  honor  by  a  molecular 
appeal.  In  fact,  brute  force  is  the  animaFs  stand- 
ard of  ethics : 

Isaac  Watts  -^^^  bears  and  lions  growl  and  fight ; 

For  'tis  their  nature  too. 

But  if  you  believe  that  right  and  justice  and 
honor  and  truth  are  spiritual  in  their  nature,  then 
2  Cor.  X,  I.  let  the  weapons  of  your  warfare  be  spiritual,  not 
carnal ;  so  shall  you  become  mighty  before  God  to 
the  casting  down  of  strongholds.  Do  you  say 
that  Christ's  precept  of  non-resistance  is  impracti- 
cable and  visionary?  William  Penn,  peaceful 
founder  of  our  own  great  commonwealth,  fighting 
barbarous  aborigines  with  no  sword  but  the  olive- 
branch  ;  aye,  our  own  respected  fellow-citizens  of 


THE   SIXTH   COMMAXDMENT.  207 

to-day,  the  Quakers  (and  Friends  iudeed  they  are) 
— this  is  a  sufficient  answer.  Talk  about  Utopia? 
Obey  Jesus  Christ ;  and  Utopia  becomes  actuality, 
the  laud  of  promise  becomes  the  land  of  heritage. 

And  this  leads  me  to  my  last  point :  Christ's  doc-  The  Coming 
trine  of  love  or  perfection  is  growing  in  favor.  The 
Man  of  Nazareth  has  not  taught  and  lived,  and 
illustrated  in  vain.  When  he  was  led  as  a  lamb  Actsviii,32. 
to  the  slaughter,  yet  opened  not  his  mouth;  when 
he  was  reviled,  yet  reviled  not  again;  when  he  i Peter n. 21-23. 
suffered,  yet  threatened  not;  when  he  died,  the 
just  for  the  unjust, — he  left  us  an  example  which 
ever  since  has  been  growing  in  omnipotence.  Yes, 
it  is  coming  to  be  understood  that  Christ's  man- 
ners are  the  world's  ethics.  His  morals  are  slowly 
but  most  surely  impregnating  and  transfiguring 
society.  Contrast,  for  example,  modern  legislation 
with  the  Mosaic,  Christian  hymn-books  with 
David's  imprecatory  Psalms.  Even  Victor  Hugo, 
*'free  thinker"  though  he  was,  represents  the  hero 
of  "Les  Miserables" — the  thief,  Jean  Valjean — 
as  saved  and  transfigured  by  the  forgiveness  of  the 
good  Bishop  Monseigneur  Bienvenu.  No ;  the 
animal  shall  not  always  rule.  The  more  spiritual, 
and  therefore  the  more  imperial  side  of  humanity 
is  yet  to  come,  and  will  come  to  stay.  Men  will  not 
always  herd  with  the  beasts,  believing  in  guns  or 
brute  force.  The  Son  of  Mary  is  the  Coming  Man. 
There  sits  the  unplumed,  unsworded  Warrior  of 
the  Mountain,  calmly  abiding  the  ages,  mending  Matt,  xu,  20,  2L 
the  bruised  reed,  fanning  the  dying  wick,  sending 
forth    righteousness   unto   victory;    there  he  sits, 


208  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

evermore  drawing  humanity  nearer  and  nearer  to 
himself;  and,  as  they  approach,  I  see  them  drop- 
ping the  spear,  uplifting  the  olive-branch,  arrang- 
ing themselves  in  shining  and  rapturous  groups 
around  the  Man  of  Nazareth — the  Lamb  of  God 
himself  being  their  everlasting  Mount  of  Beati- 
tudes. 

l.<)nj,'fellow's  Down  the  dark  future,  through  long  generations, 

Spihrgneld. **  '^^^  echoing  sounds  grow  fainter,  and  then  cease ; 

And  like  a  bell,  with  solemn,  sweet  vibrations, 
I  hear  once  more  the  voice  of  Christ  say.  Peace  1 

Peace  I  and  no  longer  from  its  brazen  portals 

The  blast  of  War's  great  organ  shakes  the  skies ; 

But  beautiful  as  songs  of  the  immortals, 
The  holy  melodies  of  love  arise. 

Collect.  O  Lord,  who  hast  taught  us  that  all  our  doings  without 

charity  are  nothing  worth;  Send  thy  Holy  Spirit,  and  pour 
into  our  hearts  that  most  excellent  gift  of  charity,  the  very 
bond  of  peace  and  of-  all  virtues,  without  which  whosoever 
liveth  is  counted  dead  before  thee.  Grant  this  for  thine  only 
Son  Jesus  Christ's  sake.     Amen. 


yiii. 

THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Thou  Shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

£xodas  XX,  14. 


VIII. 

THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT. 

The  wedded  state  is  earth's  most  sacred  relation.  The  First 
It  carries  us  back  to  the  Eden  that  has  been,  when 
the  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth  joined  together  the 
parents  of  the  human  race.     Listen  to  the  divine 
account  of  the  first  bridal : 

Jehovah  God  said :  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should  be  Gen  ii,  18-25. 
alone ;  I  will  make  him  a  help  meet  (answering  to)  for  him.  And 
out  of  the  ground  Jehovah  God  formed  every  beast  of  the  field 
and  every  fowl  of  the  air;  and  brought  them  unto  the  man  to 
see  what  be  would  call  them  ;  and  whatsoever  the  man  called 
every  living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof.  And  the 
man  gave  names  to  all  cattle,  and  to  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and 
to  every  beast  of  the  field  ;  but  for  man  there  was  not  found  a 
help  meet  for  him.  And  Jehovah  God  caused  a  deep  sleep  to 
fall  upon  the  man,  and  he  slept;  and  he  took  one  of  his  ribs, 
and  closed  up  the  flesh  instead  thereof ;  and  the  rib,  which 
Jehovah  God  had  taken  from  the  man  made  he  (builded  he  into) 
a  woman,  and  brought  her  unto  the  man.  And  the  man  said  : 
This  is  now  bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  ;  she  shall 
be  called  Woman  (Isshah) ,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  Man 
(Ish).  Therefore  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  his  mother, 
and  shall  cleave  unto  his  wife :  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh. 
And  they  were  both  naked,  the  man  and  his  wife,  and  were  not 
ashamed. 

Of  course,  it  is  quite  possible  that  this  venerable  The   Archive 
archive  is  to  be  taken  literally.     My  own  impres-      *  Payable, 
sion,  however,  is  that  it  is  a  divine  parable,  convey- 
ing to  us  great  truths,  not  so  much  in  literal  details 
as  in  colossal,  shadowy  outlines.     For  when  we 

211 


212  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

move,  as  in  this  matter  of  the  original  creation,  in 
the  region  of  unprecedented  facts,  altogether  tran- 
scending human  experience,  the  language  must  in 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  be  figurative.  And  so 
it  comes  to  pass  here,  as  elsewhere  in  the  realm  of 
incomparable  truths,  shadowy  parable  is  really 
truer  than  crystalline  chronicle.  Let  us,  then, 
ascend  the  mount  of  panoramic  vision,  and  behold 
with  the  venerable  inspired  seer  the  unrolling  scene 
of  emergent  woman.  It  is  still  the  sixth  day  of 
the  creative  week.  Eden  in  all  its  ravisliing 
beauty  lies  before  us.  Adaui,  fresh  from  the  hands 
of  his  Maker,  respirant  with  his  inbreathing  and 
radiant  with  his  image,  walks  before  us  lord  of  all. 
And  yet,  notwithstanding  his  Edenic  perfections, 
he  is  ill  at  ease.  There  is  somehow  the  sense  of  an 
indefinable  want.  And  now  his  Maker  would 
teach  him  the  secret  of  his  disquietude.  Accord- 
ingly, he  summons  before  the  man  the  various 
forms  of  animal  life,  in  order  that  Adam  may 
catch  a  glimpse  of  what  is  meant  by  society.  And 
so  every  beast  of  the  field  and  every  bird  of  the  air 
come  trooping  to  Adam,  and  he  gives  to  each  its 
name.  The  vision  of  this  moving,  sentient,  abound- 
ing life  awakens  the  latent  sense  of  the  capacity  for 
companionship.  But  amid  all  these  varieties  of 
animal  life  he  finds  no  true  companion,  no  help- 
meet, no  mate  answering  to  him.  And  now,  wea- 
ried with  his  task  of  naming  the  animal  creation, 
and  still  disquieted  by  the  sense  of  a  mysterious 
defect,  he  lies  down  on  the  rich,  odorous  sward,  it 
may  be,  in  the  shadow  of  the.  tree  of  life,  and  falls 


THE   SEVENTH    COMMANDMENT.  213 

into  profound  slumber.  It  is  the  golden  hour  for 
divine  instruction;  for  it  is  in  a  dream,  in  a  Job  xxxm,  15, 
vision  of  the  night,  when  deep  sleep  falleth  upon 
men,  in  slumberings  upon  the  bed,  that  God  open- 
eth  the  ears  of  men  and  sealeth  their  instruction. 
Wrapped  in  his  deep  sleep,  Eden's  dreamer  beholds 
the  vision  of  his  second  self.  He  sees  his  Maker 
taking  from  out  of  him  one  of  his  own  ribs,  form- 
ing it  into  a  woman,  and  presenting  her  in  all  her 
glorious  beauty  to  himself,  to  be  to  him  henceforth 
that  blessed  mate  for  whom  he  has  unconsciously 
sighed.  And  so  his  God  has  in  very  truth  given  Ps-  cxxvii,  2. 
unto  his  beloved  in  his  sleep.  gi°- 

Of  all  the  thoughts  of  God  that  are  Mrs.  E.  B. 

Borne  Inward  unto  souls  afar,  rowning. 

Along  the  Psalmist's  music  deep, 
Now  tell  me  if  that  any  is, 
For  gift  or  grace,  surpassing  this — 

"  He  giveth  his  beloved  sleep  "  ? 

Nor  is  the  slumbering  dreamer's  vision  altogether 
a  dream.  Awaking  from  his  sleep,  he  beholds 
still  standing  by  his  side  his  fair,  blessed  counter- 
part. Instinctively  recognizing  tlie  community  of 
nature,  he  joyously  exclaims:  '^This  is  now  bone 
of  my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh  :  this  shall  be 
called  Isshahj  Woman,  because  out  of  Ish,  Man,  was 
she  taken."  And  hand  in  hand  they  stroll  raiment- 
less — the  man  and  his  wife — and  are  not  ashamed. 
And  so  falls  the  curtain  on  the  final  scene  of  the 
drama  of  the  creative  week.  Such  is  the  vision 
of  humanity's  first  bridal. 

And  now  let  us  ponder  some  of  the  lessons  of 
the  vision. 


214 


THE   TEN    OOMMANDxMENTS. 


Essential 
Unit}'    of 
Man  and 
Woman. 


C  o  m  m  u  nity 
of  Man  and 
Woman. 


And,  first :  The  essential"  nnity  of  man  and 
woman ;  the  man  said  :  '^  This  is  now  bone  of  ray 
bones,  and  flesh  of  my  fle.^h ;  she  shall  be  called 
Woman,  because  she  was  taken  out  of  Man." 
Accordingly,  man  and  woman,  considered  in  their 
essence,  are  a  unity.  But,  observe,  unity  implies 
complexity ;  that  is  to  say  :  unity  involves  likeness 
and  unlikeness,  sameness  and  difference,  community 
and  diversity. 

Consider,  then,  first,  the  community  of  man  and 
woman.  According  to  the  story  of  Eden,  woman 
is  of  the  same  generic  nature  with  man,  bone  of 
his  bones  and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  Their  community 
is  something  more  than  mere  similarity  of  nature; 
it  is  in  fact  con-nature  itself.  Woman's  very  name 
is  Isshah,  that  is,  Man-ness,  because  out  of  7sA, 
that  is,  Man,  was  she  taken.  And  it  is  significant 
that  she  was  taken  out  of  his  side. 


Charles  Wesley. 


Not  from  his  head  he  woman  took, 
As  made  her  husband  to  o'erlook  ; 
Not  from  his  feet,  as  one  designed 
The  footstool  of  the  stronger  kind  ; 
But  fashioned  for  himielf,  a  bride  ; 
An  equal,  taken  from  his  side. 


And  the  side  (I  assume  it  was  the  left  side)  is 
near  the  heart;  and  the  heart  is,  after  all,  the 
world's  real  sceptre ;  and  therefore  woman,  after 
all,  is  the  world's  real  monarch.     Aye, 


Bulwer'g 
"  Richelieu," 
III,  2. 


More  royalty  in  woman's  heart 

Than  dwells  within  the  crowned  majesty 

And  sceptred  anger  of  a  hundred  kings. 


Woman,  then,  is  something  more  than  a  supplement 


THE   SEVENTH   COMMANDMENT.  215 

or  appendix  to  man  ;  woman  is  man's  complement, 
his  essential  peer,  his  alter  ego,  his  second  self; 
constituting  with  him  the  genus  mankind,  or  Homo. 
There  is  nothing,  then,  in  the  essential  nature  of 
woman  which  should  exclude  her  from  the  rights 
and  privileges  which  inherently  belong  to  the 
genus  Homo.  Whatever  is  legitimately  open  to 
man,  not  indeed  as  a  man,  but  as  homo  or  a  human 
being,  is  equally  open  to  woman ;  for  both  are 
equally  human.  Woman,  not  less  than  man,  can 
reason,  imagine,  observe,  classify,  generalize, 
deduce.  Woman,  not  less  than  man,  can  plan 
buildings,  make  statues,  resolve  nebulse,  discover 
elements,  diagnosticate  diseases,  construct  philoso- 
phies, write  epics.  There  is  no  reason  in  the 
nature  of  woman  as  woman  which  should  forbid 
her  having  a  specific  employment  or  vocation  as 
distinctively  as  the  brother  brought  up  by  her  side. 
True,  there  are  some  things  which  woman  cannot 
do  as  well  as  man ;  this,  however,  is  not  because  I 
she  is  inferior  in  any  of  the  essential  attributes  of  I 
humanity,  but  simply  because  she  is  inferior  in  the 
accidental  matter  of  physical  strength.  It  is  no 
more  to  woman's  discredit  that  she  does  not  figure 
well  in  leaving  her  nursery  to  shoe  a  horse  than  it 
is  to  man's  discredit  that  he  does  not  figure  well  in 
leaving  his  anvil  to  rock  a  baby.  While,  then, 
many  of  the  occupations  which  man  has  hitherco 
claimed  as  exclusively  his  own  are  in  the  growing 
wisdom  of  society  admitted  to  be  equally  open  to 
women,  there  are  certain  other  occupations  from 
which  woman  manifestly  ought  to  exclude  herself. 


216  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Evidently  she  is  not  called  to  hold  the  plow,  or 
wield  the  sledge,  or  fell  the  forest,  or  hoist  the 
mainsail,  or  seize  the  burglar,  or  harangue  the 
caucus.  Nevertheless,  in  all  that  coustituently 
belongs  to  man  as  man,  in  all  that  makes  up  the 
essentiality  of  his  being,  woman  is  one  with  man, 
sharing  his  nature,  his  inspiration,  his  imageship, 
his  sonhood.  Thank  God,  we  are  livino^  in  an  as^e 
of  the  world    when    St.  Paul's   doctrine   that   in 

Gal.  iii,  28.  Ciirist  there  can  be  no  male  or  female — for  all  are 
one  in  Christ  Jesus — is  really  beginning  to  be 
believed,  and  when  woman,  as  man's  essential 
equal,  is  resuming  those  majestic,  heaven-endowed 
proportions  which  she  wore  in  that  far-ofiP  sixth 

Gen,  T,  1,2.  day  when  God  created  man  in  his  own  likeness, 
male  and  female  created  he  them,  and  blessed  them, 
and  called  their  name  Adam  (Man),  in  the  day 
when  they  were  created. 

Diversit}'    of       Nevertheless,  as  I  have  already  said,  this  unity 

Man     and      ^  ,       '  •        v        j-  -x  n 

Woman.  01  man  and  woman  implies  diversity  as  well  as 
community.  In  fact,  diversity  is  essential  to  unity. 
For  consider  for  a  moment  the  difference  between 
a  unity  and  a  bare  unit.  A  unit  is  a  homogeneous 
something,  for  example,  an  atom  of  oxygen,  or  an 
atom  of  hydrogen.  A  unity  is  a  blended,  coherent, 
systematized  collection  of  diverse  somethings  in  a 
state  of  homogeneousness  or  oneness — for  example, 
the  union  of  eight  weights  of  oxygen  and  one 
weight  of  hydrogen,  forming  one  molecule  of 
water.  It  is  the  blending  of  different  yet  comple- 
mental  colors  of  blue  and  orange,  of  green  and  red, 
of  purple  and  yellow,  in  fact,  of  all  the  colors  at 


THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.      217 

once  which  yields  the  unity  of  perfect  whiteness. 
Looking  at  the  point  under  discussion  in  this  light, 
there  is  no  superber  earthly  instance  of  unity  than 
man  and  woman.  Recall  the  phraseology  of  the 
primeval  archive  :  "  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  Gen.  u,  is. 
should  be  alone ;  I  will  make  him  a  help  meet  for 
him  '^ — that  is  to  say,  a  helper  suited  to  him,  cor- 
respondent to  him,  complemental  to  him,  matching 
him.  It  was  the  birth  of  Society.  Woman  is 
something  more  than  man's  supplement :  woman  is 
man's  complement.  In  other  words,  man  and 
woman  are  the  two  poles  of  the  sphere  of  mankind ; 
opposite  and  complemental,  complemental  because 
opposite.  And  the  one  pole  implies  the  other. 
Legislate  as  much  as  you  please,  you  cannot  abolish 
the  fact  of  the  sexes.  Elementally  the  same,  man 
and  woman  are  organized  on  different  bases.  Like 
the  stars,  they  differ  in  their  glory.  Each  has  cer-  i  cor.  xv,  4i. 
tain  excellences  which  are  peculiar  to  each,  and- 
distinctive  of  each.  Man's  excellences  are  virtues ; 
woman's  excellences  are  graces;  and  I  suspect  that, 
in  the  judgment  of  him  who  sees  in  secret,  the; 
graces  are  diviner  than  the  virtues.  It  is  woman's ': 
delicate  beauty  of  spirit  which  gives  her  the  right 
to  win,  and  which,  thank  God,  does  win  man's 
sturdy  love.  It  is  woman's  physical  weakness 
which  constitutes  her  claim  on  man's  physical 
strength.  It  is  woman's  purity  which  constitutes 
her  claim  on  man's  reverence.  It  is  woman's 
womanliness  which  constitutes  her  claim  on  man's 
manliness.  No  manner  of  sympathy,  then,  have  I 
with  those  so-called  reformers — heaven  save  the 
19 


218  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

mark  ! — who,  in  their  noisy  and  witless  champion- 
ship of  what  they  imagine  are  Woman's  Rights, 
fancy  they  can  override  the  everlasting  laws  of 
nature,  and  turn  woman  into  man.  Only  one  thing 
in  this  world  is  feebler  than  a  womanized  man; 
it  is  a  manized  woman.  It  is  only  as  woman 
remains  womanly  that  woman  remaius  imperial.  In 
these  days,  then,  of  confused,  riotous,  infidel  reform 
— these  days  when  woman  proposes  to  unsex  herself, 
and  usurp  the  reins  and  the  toga — it  is  well  to  go 
back  to  first  principles,  even  the  Eden  of  the 
primal,  unfallen  pair.  In  so  doing  we  shall  learn 
to  honor  man  and  woman  equally.  For  each  is 
1  Cor.  xi,  11, 12.  essential  to  the  other.  Listen  to  St.  Paul :  "Neither 
is  the  woman  without  the  man,  nor  the  man  with- 
out the  woman,  in  the  Lord.  For  as  the  woman 
is  of  the  man,  so  is  the  man  also  by  the  woman ; 
but  all  things  are  of  God."  Each  is  incomplete 
without  the  other.  It  is  the  union  of  the  hemi- 
spheres which  makes  the  sphere.  For  so  the  lau- 
reate sings : 

Tennyson's  For  woman  is  not  undevelopt  man, 

"  Princess."  g^t  diverse  :  could  we  make  her  as  the  man, 

Sweet  Love  were  slain  :  his  dearest  bond  is  this. 

Not  like  to  like,  but  like  in  difference. 

Yet  in  the  long  years  liker  must  they  grow ; 

The  man  be  more  of  woman,  she  of  man  ; 

He  gain  in  sweetness  and  in  moral  height, 

Nor  lose  the  wresting  thews  that  throw  the  world ; 

She  mental  breadth,  nor  fail  in  childward  care ; 

Nor  lose  the  childlike  in  the  larger  mind ; 

Till  at  the  last  she  set  herself  to  man. 

Like  perfect  music  unto  noble  words ; 

And  so  these  twain,  upon  the  skirts  of  Time, 

Sit  side  by  side,  full-summ'd  in  all  their  powers, 


THE    SEVENTH    COMMANDMENT.  2]  9 

Dispensing  harvest,  sowing  the  To-be, 

Self-reverent  each  and  reverencing  each, 

Distinct  in  individualities, 

But  like  each  other  ev'n  as  those  who  love. 

Then  comes  the  statelier  Eden  back  to  men  : 

Then  reign  the  world's  great  bridals,  chaste  and  calm; 

Then  springs  the  crowning  race  of  humankind. 

May  these  things  be  ! 
This,  then,  is  tiie  first  great  lesson  of  the  primeval 
archive  touching  the  primal  pair:  The  unity  of 
man  and  woman:  "The  man  said,  This  is  now  Gen.  11,23. 
bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh  of  my  flesh:  she  shall 
be  called  Isshah  (Woman),  because  she  was  taken 
out  of  Ish  (Man)." 

But  our  venerable  archive  teaches  a  second  great  Marriage  a 
lesson:  it  is  this:  Marriage  is  a  divine  institution,  stltutfon? 
"The  rib,  which  Jehovah  God  had  taken  from  the  Gen. u, 22. 
man,  builded  he  into  a  woman,  and  brought  her 
unto  the  man."  I  know  indeed  that  human  legis- 
lation declares,  and  quite  properly,  that  any  given 
marriage  is  a  civil  contract,  or,  as  I  would  rather 
say,  status.  Nor  can  human  legislation  guard  with 
a  jealousy  too  keen  the  sacred ness  of  the  marriage 
bond.  That  sacred  ness  is  the  segis  of  our  firesides, 
the  palladium  of  our  homes.  Nevertheless,  mar- 
riao:e  is  a  divine  ordinance,  older  than  anv  human 
institution,  older  than  man's  fall,  older  even  than 
God's  Sabbath ;  marriage  is  as  old  as  Eden  and  the 
primal  pair.  Marriage  is  a  constituent,  elemental 
fact  of  humanity.  As  such,  marriage  is  as  much  a 
divine  fact  as  day  and  night  or  the  universe  itself. 
In  the  very  fact  of  creating  the  Woman  and  pre- 
senting her  to  the  Man,  the  Creator  of  all  ordained 
the  marriage  institution. 


220  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Marriage  the  But  our  hoai'v  archive  teaches  a  third  great  les- 
portant  ^^'  ^^"  •  "^^^^  marriage  relation  takes  precedence  of 
Human  Re-  every  other  human  relation  ;  "  Therefore  shall  a  man 

lation.  •' 

Gen.  ii,  24.  leavc  liis  father  and  his  mother,  and  shall  cleave  unto 
his  wife  :  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh  " — that  is,  one 
personality.  These  words  are  memorable  as  being 
the  first  statement  of  the  Old  Testament  that  is  cited 

Matt,  xix,  3-6.  in  the  New.  There  came  unto  Jesus  Pharisees, 
tempting  him,  and  saying :  "  Is  it  lawful  for  a  man 
to  put  away  his  wife  for  every  cause?"  Jesus 
answered  and  said  ;  *'  Have  ye  not  read,  that  lie 
who  made  them  from   the  beginning  made  them 

Gen.  ii,  24.  male  and  female,  and  said  :  For  this  cause  shall  a 
man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave 
to  his  wife ;  and  the  twain  shall  become  one  flesh  ; 
so  that  they  are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh. 
What  therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not 
man  put  asunder.''  Thus  the  very  idea  of  mar- 
riage, as  existing  in  the  Creator's  mind,  precludes 
its  dissolution  while  life  continues :  "  No  longer 
twain,  but  one  flesh;  no  longer  two  individuals, 
henceforth  one  personality."  Accordingly,  none 
but  the  God  who  joins  can  disjoin.  "  What  there- 
fore God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put 
asunder." 

Summary    of       Such  is  the  Original  Charter  of  Marriage,  as  old 
Ari'bive.*^      as  Eden,  as  divine  as  Deity.     And  well  may  we 
thank  God  that  he  has  given  us  this  sacred  account. 
j  For  the  marriage  institution  is  the  very  root  of 
*  society,  alike  its  basis  and  its  bond.     Monogamy 
is  the  unit  of  humanity;  the  family  is  the  micro- 
cosm of  mankind.     Accordingly,  as  husbands  and 


THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.      221 

wives  are,  so  are  men  and  women — that  is,  society 
itself.  The  sanctity  of  the  marriage  bond  is  the  \ 
very  bulwark  of  humankind.  Such  are  some  of  ' 
the  reasons  why  the  marriage  institution  is  so  un- 
speakably sacred.  It  is  not  only  divine  in  its 
origin :  it  is  also  divine  in  its  tendency,  and,  as 
we  shall  see,  divine  in  its  final  meaning.  Well, 
then,  may  we  speak  of  marriage  as  the  "  holy 
estate  of  matrimony."  It  is  most  fitting,  then,  that 
the  marriage  ceremony  should  be  ecclesiastical — that 
is  to  say,  religious.  Not  that  the  minister  really 
weds  the  couple  :  it  is  God  who  joins  them.  The 
minister's  function  is  not  executive:  it  is  only 
declarative.  But  the  minister  is  not  omniscient. 
Alas,  that  he  should  ever  be  mistaken,  declaring 
those  wedded  whom  God  has  not  joined  together. 
Nevertheless,  marriage  is  a  divine  ordinance,  and  as 
such  intensely  religious.  Matrimony  "  therefore 
is  not  by  any  to  be  entered  into  unadvisedly 
or  lightly  ;  but  reverently,  discreetly,  advisedly, 
soberly,  and  in  the  fear  of  God.''  Consider,  then, 
well,  young  friends,  what  you  may  be  proposing. 
Marriage  is,  in  sight  of  God,  an  act  as  sacred  as 
baptism  itself.  God  grant  that  all  who  are  think- 
ing of  matrimony  may  indeed  be  also  joint  heirs  of  iPet.iii,7. 
the  grace  of  life ;  to  the  end  that  your  prayers  be 
not  hindered. 

And  now  we  are  prepared  for  the  Seventh  Coml-  The    Seventh 
mandment :    Thou  shall  not  commit  adultery.  me™™^^ 

It  is  the  divine  Lawgiver's  ordinance,  guarding  ^xod.xx.w. 
the  chastity  of  marriage,  the  sanctity  of  home,  the 
blessedness  of  the  household,  the  preservation  of 


222  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

society,  the  upbuilding  of  mankind.     Let  earth's 
civic  authorities,  then,  take  exceeding  care  that  they 
legislate  and  administer  in  this  supreme  matter  of 
marriage  according  to  the  divine  oracle.     Would 
God  they  all  conceived  it  according  to  the  standard 
and  in  the  spirit  of  the  Nazarene  Teacher!     For 
John  ii,  25.         he  who  kucw  all  men,  and  needed  not  that  any  one 
should  testify  to  him   concerning  man,  since  he 
himself  knew  what  was  in  man,  is  a  diviner  Law- 
giver than  even  Sinai's. 
Christ's  Ex-       And  SO  wc  pass  from  the  Seventh  Command- 
SeventiTcorn-  ^^^^^  itsclf  to  the  Divine  Man's  exposition  of  it : 

maudment. 
Matt.  V,  27-32.  Ye  have  heard  that  it  was  said,  Thou  shalt  not  commit 

adultery  :  but  I  say  unto  you,  that  every  one  that  looketh  on  a 
woman  to  lust  after  her  hath  committed  adultery  with  her 
already  in  his  heart.  And  if  thy  right  eye  causeth  thee  to 
stumble,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast  it  from  thee  :  for  it  is  profitable 
for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not  thy 
whole  body  be  cast  into  hell.  And  if  thy  right  hand  causeth 
thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off,  and  cast  it  from  thee  :  for  it  is  profit- 
able for  thee  that  one  of  thy  members  should  perish,  and  not 
thy  whole  body  go  into  hell.  It  was  said  also.  Whosoever 
shall  put  away  his  wife,  let  him  give  her  a  writing  of  divorce- 
ment :  but  I  say  unto  you,  that  every  one  that  putteth  away 
his  wife,  saving  for  the  cause  of  fornication,  maketh  her  an 
adulteress  :  and  whosoever  shall  marry  her  when  she  is  put 
away  committeth  adultery. 

Christ's  Doc-       Observe,  first,  Christ's  definition   of  adultery: 

Adultery.  "^®  ^^^^^  ^^^^^^  ^^^^^  ^^  ^^"^  ^^^^f  Thou  shalt  not 
commit  adultery  :  but  I  say  unto  you,  that  every 
one  that  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her  hath 
committed  adultery  with  her  in  his  heart."  Listen, 
also,  to  our  Divine  Master,  when,  on  another  occa- 
Mati.xv,i9;  sion,  he  said:  From  within,  out  of  the  heart  of 
22.         '     '  men,  come  forth  evil  thoughts,  murders,  adulteries, 


TUE   SEVENTH    COMMANDMENT.  223 

fornications,  covetings,  lasciviousness,  an  evil  eye. 
Thus  does  the  Lord  of  all  vision,  in  the  sublime 
austereness  of  an  infinite  chastity,  step  behind  all 
legislation  and  all  overt  act,  and,  as  in  the  case  of 
his  interpretation  of  the  law  against  murder,  which  Matt.  6, 21, 22. 
we  studied  last  Sunday  afternoon,  plant  himself 
amid  the  secrets  of  the  inner  life,  and  lay  his 
scorching  finger  on  the  primal,  elemental  germ  of 
all  impure  feeling.  How  different  his  teaching 
here  from  that  of  the  ancient  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees, and,  for  that  matter,  of  the  modern  paragons 
of  a  reputable,  conventional  morality!  Those  ex- 
pounded, and  these  expound  the  Seventh  Com- 
mandment letter-wise:  he  expounds  it  spirit- wise, 
declaring  that  the  guilt  of  breaking  the  Seventh 
Commandment  lies  not  in  the  outward,  bodily  act, 
but  in  the  inward,  unchaste  feeling.  Thus  does  he 
in  very  truth  fulfill  the  law,  his  righteousness  in- 
finitely exceeding  the  literal  righteousness  of  the 
blameless  scribes  and  Pharisees.  Yerily, "  The  word  Heb  iv,  12,  is. 
of  God  is  living  and  active,  and  sharper  than  any 
two-edged  sword,  and  piercing  even  to  the  divid- 
ing asunder  of  soul  and  spirit,  of  both  joints  and 
marrow,  and  quick  to  discern  the  thoughts  and  in- 
tents of  the  heart.  And  there  is  no  creature  that  is 
not  manifest  in  his  sight:  but  all  things  are  naked 
and  laid  open  before  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we 
have  to  do."  Who,  then,  may  not  well  tremble? 
For,  thus  interpreted,  who  has  thus  not  broken 
the  Seventh  Commandment?  Ah,  if  Moses,  the 
lawgiver,  was  so  terrible,  how  much  more  terrible 
is  Jesus,  the  law-interpreter  and  the  law-fulfiller! 


224  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

And  here  I  stay  my  words  touching  this   point. 

Our  Lord's  exposition  of  the  Seventh  Command- 
isa.xxxv,8.        ment  is  so  divinely  simple  that  "the  wayfaring 

men,  yea  fools,  need  not  err  therein." 
Christ's  Doc-       And  uow  observe  Christ's  doctrine  of  divorce: 

ii'iue  of  Di- 
vorce. It  was  said  also,  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  let  him 
Matt,  V,  31, 32.       g^^g  j^g^,  ^  writing  of  divorcement.     But  I  say  unto  you,  that 
every  one  that  putteth  away  his  wife,  saving  for  the  cause  of 
fornication,  maketh  her  an  adulteress;   and  whosoever  shall 
marry  her  when  she  is  put  away  committeth  adultery. 

Recall  also  the  occasion  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  when  Jesus  was  in  Perea: 

Matt,  xix,  3-12;  There  came  unto  him  Pharisees,  and  asked  him  :  Is  it  lawful 
Mark  x,  2-12.  f^j,  g^  j^g^^  ^^  p^^.  ^^^y  his  wife?  trying  him.  He  answered 
and  said  unto  them.  What  did  Moses  command  you?  They 
said,  Moses  suffered  to  write  a  bill  of  divorcement,  and  to  put 
her  away.  But  Jesus  said  unto  them.  For  your  hardness  of 
heart  he  wrote  you  this  commandment.  But  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  creation,  male  and  female  made  he  them.  For  this 
cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave 
to  his  wife  ;  and  the  twain  shall  become  one  flesh  :  so  that  they 
are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh.  What  therefore  God  hath 
joined  together,  let  not  man  put  asunder.  And  in  the  house 
the  disciples  asked  him  again  of  this  matter.  They  say 
unto  him,  Why  then  did  Moses  command  to  give  a  bill  of 
divorcement,  and  to  put  her  away  ?  He  saith  unto  them,  Moses 
for  your  hardness  of  heart  suffered  you  to  put  away  your 
wives  :  but  from  the  beginning  it  hath  not  been  so.  And  I  say 
unto  you.  Whosoever  shall  put  away  his  wife,  except  for  forni- 
cation, and  shall  marry  another,  committeth  adultery :  and 
he  that  marrieth  her  when  she  is  put  away  committeth  adultery: 
and  if  she  herself  shall  put  away  her  husband,  and  marry 
another,  she  committeth  adultery. 

Our  Master's  language  is  sufficiently  plain  :  there 
has  never  been  any  need  of  dispute  about  it,  least 
of  all  in  the  church.  Let  me  simply  recall  your 
attention  to  the  principal  statements.    First:  Moses 


THE  SEVENTH   COMMANDMENT.  225 

did  allow  his  countrymen  divorce  for  other  causes 
than  the  one  which  the  Nazarene  Teacher  specifies : 
but  he  allowed  it  because  of  his  countrymen's  hard- 
ness of  heart — that  is,  because  of  that  moral  obtuse- 
ness  into  which  they  had  sunk  as  one  of  the  sad 
results  of  their  long  servitude  in  idolatrous  and 
polygamous  Egypt.  Secondly :  In  the  beginning, 
however,  it  was  not  so;  in  the  primal  estate  no 
divorce  was  allowed.  Monogamy  was  a  law  of 
Eden.  Thirdly:  The  marriage  estate  takes  prece- 
dence of  every  other  human  relation:  "For  this 
cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and 
shall  cleave  to  his  wife" :  every  domestic  and  social 
relation  is  to  be  subordinate  to  the  law  of  monog- 
amy. Fourthly :  Marriage  merges  the  dualism  of 
man  and  woman  into  the  unity  of  husband  and 
wife,  blending  them  into  a  twofold  yet  single 
personality:  No  longer  twain;  henceforth  one. 
Fifthly :  The  marriage  bond  is  divine,  and  there- 
fore indissoluble  while  life  continues:  "  What 
therefore  God  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man  put 
asunder."  Sixthly  :  The  one  solitary  exception  to 
the  indissolubleness  of  the  marriage  bond  is  infi- 
delity to  the  marriage  vow  :  "  Saving  for  the  cause 
of  fornication."  Seventhly :  E,e-marriage,  alike 
in  the  case  of  the  divorcer  and  the  divorced,  except- 
ing the  divorce  based  on  the  solitary  cause  of  marital 
infidelity,  is  adultery.  Such  is  the  shining  chastity 
of  the  carpenter's  Son.  It  is  one  of  the  fashions 
of  cavilers  to  impugn  the  originality  of  Jesus, 
alleging  that  some  of  his  characteristic  teachings 
were  already  commonplaces    in  pagan    literature. 


226  THE   TEN   COMMAKDMENTS. 

Search;  then,  the  Analects,  the  Yedas,  the  Zend- 
avesta :  can  you  find  in  them  any  such  doctrine  of 
chastity  as  the  Nazarene's  ?    Here  at  least  is  fresh- 
Ps.  cx,3.  ness  of  moral   statement,    radiant   in   beauties  of 

holiness,  born  from  the  morning,  sparkling  with 
the  dew  of  perpetual  youth. 

Our  Topic  Our  topic,  I  must  sorrowfully  add,  is  pertinent 

Pertinent.  i  i       i        t  .  ,  • 

to  our  age  and  land.  Ijoose  notions  touchmg  mar- 
riage, divorce,  re-marriage,  are  painfully,  alarm- 
ingly prevalent.  We  need  not  go  so  far  as  Utah 
to  find  Mormons,  theoretical  and  practical.  Even 
among  those  who  call  themselves  cultivated  there 
are  some  whose  teachings  concerning  marriage  are 
so  lax  and  sensuous  that,  were  they  carried  into 
practical  effect,  the  "holy  estate  of  matrimony" 
would  sink  into  the  open  polygamy  and  polyandry 
of  savage  tribes,  and  even  the  promiscuous  society 
of  roaming  animal  hordes.  Let  it  be  thundered 
from  the  pulpit,  from  the  academy,  from  the  forum, 
that  divorce  (absolute  divorce,  allowing  re-mar- 
riage), saving  for  one  solitary  cause,  is  a  threefold 
crime — a  crime  against  home,  a  crime  against 
society,  a  crime  against  God.  Aye,  young  gentle- 
men, the  legislators  of  the  nineteenth  century 
have  yet  a  great  deal  to  learn  from  the  LaAvgiver 
of  the  first. 

Christ's  Cure       And  now  let  US  ponder  the  Divine  Man's  pre- 
fer Unchas-  ..  .  ,,  T/»l  •! 

tity.  scription  for  the  cure  of  unchastity  :  "  if  thy  right 

*    '    *     '  eye  causeth  thee  to  stumble,  pluck  it  out,  and  cast 

k  from  thee :  and  if  thy  right  hand  causeth  thee  to 

The  Body  the  stumble,  cut  it  off,  and  cast  it  from  thee." 

Sin.  ^^^'  ^        The  phraseology,  you  perceive,  is  taken  from  the 


THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT.  227 

sphere  of  the  bodily  life.  And  most  justly.  For, 
philosophize  and  refine  as  much  as  you  please,  all 
earthly  spirits,  even  the  most  etherial,  live,  and — 
so  long  as  the  present  constitution  of  things  lasts — 
must  perforce  live  in  the  body,  and  by  means  of 
the  body.  Our  bodily  senses  —  seeing,  hearing, 
touching — ^are  the  hinges  of  the  soul,  the  axles  on 
which  character  turns  to  and  fro,  in  and  out ;  they 
are  the  inlets  and  the  outlets  of  two  worlds,  the 
world  without  and  the  world  within.  It  is  liter- 
ally true  that  a  man  without  senses  is  a  man  with- 
out sense,  actual  or  possible.  'Nor  is  there  in  this 
anything  necessarily  degrading.  Matter  is  not  in 
itself  inherently  evil.  That  is  a  pagan  notion, 
bequeathed  us  from  an  immemorial  antiquity,  of 
which  Christendom,  even  at  this  late  day,  has  but 
partially  succeeded  in  ridding  herself.  No ;  matter 
is  not  inherently  evil.  On  the  evening  of  the  sixth  Gen.  i,  31. 
day  of  the  creative  week,  the  Maker  of  the  universe 
saw  everything  that  he  had  made,  and,  behold,  it 
was  very  good.  And  had  man  never  fallen,  his 
body  would  have  ever  continued  to  be  the  faultless 
and  blessed  instrument  of  naught  but  what  is 
divinely  pure,  and  bright,  and  lovely.  Alas  !  man 
did  fall ;  and  in  falling  he,  Samson-like,  brought 
down  all  nature  with  himself : 

Earth  felt  the  wound  ;  and  Nature  from  her  seat,  "Paradise  Lost,'' 

Sighing  through  all  her  works,  gave  signs  of  woe, 
That  all  was  lest. 

Nor  can  there  be  sadder  evidence  of  this  than  the 
simple  fact  that  the  bodily  senses,  which  our  Creator 
has  bestowed  on  us  as  a  means  of  honoring  him,  are 


228  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

SO  often  actually  used  as  a  means  of  dishonoring 
him.      For  example  :    How  often  does   the  eye, 

Ps.  xix,  1.  instead  of  gazing  on  that  glory  of  God  which  the 

heavens  declare,  and  that  handywork  of  his  which 
the  firmament  sheweth,  gloat  over  heaps  of  filthy 
lucre,  or  the  sensuous  sketches  of  dissolute  artists  ! 
How  often  does  the  ear,  instead  of  hearkening  to 

Ps.  xix,  2.  that  speech  which  day  uttereth  unto  day,  and  that 

knowledge  which  night  sheweth  unto  night,  listen 
to  the  song  of  the  ribald,  and  the  sneer  of  the 
scoffer  !     How  often  does  the  tongue,  instead  of 

Ps.  cxiv,  1-13.  speaking  of  the  glorious  majesty  of  God's  kingdom, 
and  uttering  the  memory  of  his  great  goodness, 
blurt  blasphemy  against  Jehovah  its  Maker  !  How 
often  does  the  hand,  instead  of  feeding  the  hungry 
and  clothing  the  naked,  wield  the  slanderer's  pen, 
or  the  assassin's  dagger  !     How  often  does  the  foot, 

Ps.  xiii,  4.  instead  of  Openly  walking  to  the  house  of  God  in 

procession  with  the  multitude  who  keep  holy  day, 
stealthily  visit  the  haunts  where  virtue  is  an  outlaw, 
and  debauchery  holds  orgies  !  How  true  it  is  that 
sin  has  conquered  the  entire  man — spirit,  and  soul, 
and  body — inverting  the  order  of  nature,  or,  rather, 
turning  her  order  into  disorder,  upsetting  the  primal 

R<.m.  vii,  14-20.  equilibrium  in  man,  setting  the  members  of  his  body 
at  war  against  the  members  of  his  spirit,  making 
the  sensuous  to  triumph  over  the  spiritual.  Well, 
then,  may  man,  surveyed  as  fallen,  be  called  carnal 
— that  is,  fleshly,  enslaved  under  sin.  And  it  is 
just  because  sin  has  so  perverted  and  prostituted 
the  bodily  side  of  our  nature,  which  is  the  avenue 
and  organ  of  our  moral  operations,  that  the  Great 


THE  SEVENTH   COMMANDMENT.  229 

Teacher  draws  his  illustrations  from  the  sphere  of 
the  bodily  life  :  If  thy  right  eye,  or  thy  right  hand, 
causeth  thee  to  stumble,  pluck  out  the  eye,  cut  off 
the  hand,  and  cast  them  from  thee. 

Not  that  our  Lord's  command  is  to  be  taken  The  Excision 
literally.  True,  the  literal  interpretation  of  Scrip-  Literal.  ^ 
ture  is  always  the  best  when  it  is  the  simplest  and 
raises  the  fewest  difficulties.  But  certainly  this  is 
not  the  case  here.  For,  first,  the  bodily  senses  are 
not  in  themselves  guilty.  They  are  merely  the 
organs  of  guilt — the  inlets  of  temptation  and  the 
outlets  of  surrender.  When,  in  the  reign  of  the 
Bloody  Mary,  Archbishop  Cranmer  was  led  to  the 
stake,  and  extending  the  hand  which  in  a  moment 
of  weakness  had  subscribed  to  the  dogmas  of  the 
Papal  Supremacy  and  the  Real  Presence,  he  held  it 
steadily  in  the  flames,  exclaiming :  "  This  unworthy 
hand  hath  offended,"  he  did  an  act  which,  in  spite 
of  all  my  reverence  for  him  as  one  of  "the  noble 
army  of  martyrs,"  I  cannot  but  feel  was  unworthy 
of  an  educated  conscience.  Cranmer's  hand  was 
not  to  be  blamed  for  having  subscribed  to  the 
doctrines  of  Antichrist  any  more  than  Cranmer^s 
hand  was  to  be  praised  for  having  translated  the 
four  Gospels;  and  for  him  to  punish  his  hand  as 
though  it  were  guilty  was  a  piece  of  needless 
cruelty,  if  not  of  ostentatious  penance.  No;  the 
guilt  was  not  in  the  hand :  the  guilt  was  in  the 
soul  that  wielded  the  hand.^  Again :  to  pluck  out 
the  bodily  eye,  to  cut  off  the  bodily  hand,  does  not 

1  It  is  painful  to  recall  that  the  ardent  Origen,  in  much  the 
same  spirit,  literally  obeyed  Matt,  xix,  13. 

20 


230  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

really  relieve  the  moral  difficulty.  For,  suppose  the 
Lord's  command  were  to  be  literally  carried  out — all 
humanity  becoming  eyeless,  earless,  tonguel ess,  hand- 
less,  footless — think  you  tliat  all  sin  would  thereby 
be  abolished?  Rendering  our  verdicts  according  to 
the  rulings  of  the  Divine  Judge,  many  a  man  has 
committed  murder  whose  hand  was  at  the  same 
time  locked  in  paralysis,  many  a  man  has  com- 
mitted adultery  whose  eye  was  at  the  same  time 
veiled  by  cataract.  No ;  a  literal  obedience  w^ould 
not  remove  the  difficulty.  Once  more :  the  bodily 
organs,  as  we  have  seen,  are  the  instruments  of  the 
souFs  operations,  indispensable,  at  least  while  we 
are  in  this  world,  to  its  activities.     This  it  is  which 

Rom.  >i,  13.  makes  it  possible  for  us,  on  the  one  hand,  to  pre- 
•  sent  our  members  unto  sin  as  instruments  of  un- 
righteousness, and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  present 
these  members  as  instruments  of  righteousness  unto 

1  Cor.  vi,  20.  God.  In  fact,  we  are  expressly  bidden  to  glorify 
God  in  our  bodies  as  well  as  in  our  spirits,  for 
both  are  alike  his.  But  how  can  I  glorify  God  in 
my  body,  if  I  have  no  eyes  to  see  his  glory,  no  ear 
to  hear  his  word,  no  tongue  to  speak  his  praise,  no 
hand  to  do  his  will,  no  foot  to  move  toward  his 
throne?  No;  the  Moimtain  Teacher  evidently 
means  something  far  deeper  than  mere  bodily 
amputation. 

The  Exclusion  What,  then,  does  our  Lord  mean  ?  Simply  this : 
ituai.  According  to   a  very  common   figure  of  speech, 

which  you,  young  gentlemen,  recognize  as  meton- 
ymy, he  puts  the  eye  or  organ  of  seeing  for  the 
thing  seen,  the  hand  or  organ  of  doing  for  the 


THE   SEVENTH    COMMANDMEXT.  231 

thing  done ;  the  eye  being  the  passive  side  of  our 
natures,  the  hand  the  active.  It  is  as  though  our 
Master  had  said :  ''  If  that  which  thine  eye  sees  or 
thy  hand  does  occasions  thee  to  sin,  either  against 
others  or  against  thyself,  tlien  let  that  thing  hence- 
forth be  to  thee  as  though  it  existed  not;  in  other 
words,  as  though  thou  hadst  in  reference  to  that 
thing  no  eye,  no  hand;  renounce  that  thing  so 
thoroughly  that  it  shall  be  to  thee  as  though  it 
were  annihilated."  It  is  Christ's  doctrine  of  asceti- 
cism. Not  asceticism  for  self-deniaPs  own  sake, 
as  though  it  were  meritorious  in  itself:  that  is  the 
mistake  of  those  who  subject  themselves  to  the  pre-  Ck)i.  ii,  20-23. 
cepts  and  doctrines  and  ordinances  of  men,  such 
as  "Handle  not,  nor  taste,  nor  touch  (all  which 
things  are  to  perish  with  the  using) ;  w^hich  things 
have  indeed  a  show  of  w^isdom  in  will-worship, 
and  humility,  and  severity  to  the  body;  but  are 
not  of  any  value  against  the  indulgence  of  the 
flesh":  such  morbid  asceticism  as  St.  Simeon  Sty- 
lites  displayed  when,  in  the  spirit  of  an  ostentatious 
humility  and  self-denial,  he  lived,  exposed  to  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  weather — day  and  night, 
summer  and  winter — for  thirty-  years  on  the  top 
of  a  column  sixty  feet  high  and  four  feet  thick. 
No ;  Christ's  asceticism  is  not  asceticism  for  its  ow^n 
sake,  but  asceticism  for  the  sake  of  the  moral  disci- 
pline and  rectification  of  character. 

And  so  we  pass  to  the  reason  which  the  Divine  Christ's  Rea- 
Man  assigns  for  his  severe  prescription :     "  For  it      Prescrip- 
is   profitable   for  thee  that   one   of   thy  members  Matt!^*29. 
should   perish,  and   not  thy  whole  body  be   cast 


232 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Mark  ix,  43^18. 


The  Phraseol- 
ogy Jewish. 


2  flirrtii.  xxTiii 
S;  Asxiii,  6. 


2    Kings    xxiii, 
10. 


Isa.  IxTi.  24. 


But  the  Mean- 
iug  Human. 


into  hell."  The  same  reason  is  again  assigned 
later  on  in  Capernaum,  with  still  greater  particu- 
larity and  emphasis : 

If  thy  hand  cause  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off:  it  is  good  for 
thee  to  enter  into  life  maimed,  rather  than  having  thy  two 
hands  to  go  into  hell,  into  the  unquenchable  fire.  And  if  thy 
foot  cause  thee  to  stumble,  cut  it  off:  it  is  good  for  thee  to 
enter  into  life  halt,  rather  than  having  thy  two  feet  to  be  cast 
into  hell.  And  if  thine  eye  cause  thee  to  stumble,  cast  it  out ; 
it  is  good  for  thee  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  God  with  one 
eye,  rather  than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  hell ;  where 
their  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quenched. 

The  phraseology,  you  perceive,  is  Jewish.  This 
word  here  translated  "  hell"  is  Gelieuna,  the  Greek 
word  for  Valley  of  Hinnom,  which  was  a  deep 
glen  on  the  south  of  Jerusalem,  sometimes  also 
called  Tophet.  In  this  gorge  of  Hinnom,  or 
Gehenna,  during  the  idolatrous  reigns  of  Ahaz 
and  Manasseh,  parents  liad  offered  their  children 
in  fiery  sacrifice  to  the  Ammonite  god  Molech.  In 
consequence  of  these  horrid  abominations,  the  pious 
king  Josiah  defiled  the  valley — that  is,  pronounced 
it  ceremonially  unclean,  by  strewing  it  with  human 
bones.  Afterward  it  became  the  receptacle,  not 
only  of  the  refuse  and  offal  of  the  city,  but  also  of 
the  carcasses  of  animals  and  executed  felons;  and, 
according  to  some  accounts,  fires  were  evermore 
kept  burning  in  the  valley  to  consume  the  garbage 
relics.  At  all  events,  even  as  early  as  the  time  of 
Isaiah,  the  Valley  of  Hinnom  or  Gehenna,  had 
become  the  type  of  that  coming  world  of  punish- 
ment which  awaits  the  reprobate,  whose  worm 
dieth  not,  whose  fire  is  not  quenched. 

This  is  the  sense  in  which  our  Lord  himself  uses 


THE   SEVENTH    COMMANDMENT.  233 

the  word;  for,  although  his  language  is  Jewish, 
his  meaning  is  for  all  lauds  and  times.  As  he 
would  have  us  take  the  plucking  out  the  eye  or  the 
cutting  oif  the  hand,  not  literally,  but  spiritually, 
so  he  would  have  us  take  the  casting  of  the  whole 
body  into  Gehenna,  not  literally,  but  spiritually. 
His  meaning  is  this :  Whatever  occasions  you  to 
stumble,  no  matter  how  innocent  in  itself,  renounce 
it  instantly  and  wholly,  even  though  it  pains  you 
as  much  as  the  plucking  out  an  eye  or  the  cutting 
oif  a  hand;  for  it  is  better  to  suffer  partial  loss  in 
this  world  than  total  loss  in  the  next;  eternity  is 
longer  than  time.  This,  then,  is  the  choice  before 
you :  Self-indulgence  here,  and  remediless  destruc- 
tion there ;  or,  self-denial  here,  and  eternal  salva- 
tion there.  It  is,  you  perceive,  a  simple,  prac- 
ti(!al  question  of  profit  and  loss — a  question  which 
every  business  man  can  appreciate.  It  is  the  pro- 
logue of  our  Lord's  own  fuller  declaration  a  few 
months  later: 

If  any  man  would  come  after  me,  let  him  deny  himself,  and  Mark  viii,  34-37. 
take  up  his  cross,  and  follow  me.  For  whosoever  would  save 
his  life  shall  lose  it ;  and  whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my 
sake  and  the  gospel's  shall  save  it.  For  what  doth  it  profit  a 
man,  to  gain  the  whole  world,  and  forfeit  his  life?  For  what 
should  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  life  ? 

That  is  to  say:  "Better  lose  this  world  if,  by 
losing  it,  you  gain  the  next.'^  Sharp  language, 
this,  for  one  whose  name  is  Love.  But  who  shall 
teach  us,  if  it  is  not  the  Lord  of  truth  and  Judge 

of  men?  Practical  Ap- 

.      T  1  11.  .      .        ,  ,        plication  to 

And  now  let  us  take  this  prescription  home,  and      Seventii 
honestly  inquire,  each  for  himself,  whetiier  we  have      ment. 


234  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

any  offending  members  which  need  amputation. 
You  will  suffer  me  to  be  very  specific  and  plain  and 
faithful.  I  know  that  our  topic  is  a  painful  one, 
a  genuine  instance  of  morbid  anatomy.  Neverthe- 
less, the  scalpel  and  saw  and  forceps  do  have  their 
healing  uses.  Let  us,  then,  be  heroic  as  we  submit 
ourselves  to  this  spiritual  surgery.  Naturally 
enough,  for  it  is  distinctly  hinted  in  the  Heavenly 
Teacher's  own  language,  our  attention  should  be 
chiefly  directed  to  those  occasions  of  stumbling 
which  are,  in  an  eminent  sense,  bodily.  For, 
althouo:h  the  bodily  senses  in  themselves  are  not 
and  cannot  be  guilty,  yet,  as  we  have  seen,  they  are 
the  organs  of  communication  between  the  world 
within  us  and  the  world  without  us,  the  avenue 
through  which  evil  spirits  rush  in  on  incursions  of 
temptation,  and  through  which  evil  passions  rush 
out  on  excursions  of  indulgence.  Such,  for  ex- 
ample, as  our  Lord  himself  indicates  with  awful 
emphasis  of  specification,  is  the  capacity  for  the 
marital  relation.  Constituting,  as  it  does,  the  very 
basis  and  bond  of  human  society,  affecting  pro- 
foundly all  its  supreme  interests,  this  matter  is  too 
tremendously  momentous  to  be  passed  over  in 
silence;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  too  delicate  to  admit 
of  amplified  discourse.  Enough  that  I  simply 
remind  you  that  whatever  fosters  or  suggests  un- 
chaste desire  or  thought— whether  it  be  painting 
or  statuary,  opera  or  dance,  romance  or  song,  am- 
biguous allusion  or  the  figment  of  one's  own  im- 
agination, as  in  the  prophet  Ezekiel's  vision  of  the 
Ezek.  viii.  chambers  of  imagery — it  must  be  instantly,  i;er^i,oi*§e- 


THE  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT. 


235 


lessly,  everlastingly  renounced.  Martin  Luther 
never  uttered  anything  more  sensible  than  when  he 
said : 

You  cannot  prevent  the  devil  from  shooting  arrows  of  evil  Murtin  Luther, 
thoughts  into  your  heart :  but  take  care  that  you  do  not  let 
such  arrows  stick  and  grow  there.  Do  as  a  good  old  man  of 
past  times  has  said  :  "  I  can't  prevent  a  bird  from  flying  over 
my  head,  but  I  can  prevent  him  from  making  a  nest  in  my 
hair." 

May  you  and  I  ever  be  worthy  of  the  eulogium 
pronounced  by  Coriolanus  on  the  noble  sister  of 
Publicola,  "the. moon  of  Rome": 


Chaste  as  the  icicle 
That's  curded  by  the  frost  from  purest  snow, 
And  hangs  on  Dian's  temple. 


'  Coriolanus,' 
V.3. 


Let  me,  as  I  draw  toward  mv  conclusion,  remind  '^^^   Earthly 

'  ,     '      ,  '  Marriage   a 

you  that  the  eartiily  marriage  is,  and  from   the      Type  of  the 
beginning  was  divinely  meant  and  ordained  to  be,        ^^^^^  y- 
a  type  of  the  heavenly  marriage.     We   are   ex- 
pressly told  that  Adam  is  a  figure  or  type  of  him  Rom.  v,  i4. 
who  was  to  come;  and  that  the  Church  has  been  2Cor. xi,2. 
espoused  as  a  pure  virgin   to  one   husband,  even 
Jesus   Christ.     Indeed,  this   conception    of  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  Church  under  figure  of  bridegroom 
and  bride  underlies  the  whole  Scripture  from  Gen- 
esis to  Revelation.     It  is  foreshadowed  in  the  para-  Gen.  u,  18-25. 
ble  of  Eden.    It  is  typified  in  the  spiritual  marriage 
between  Jehovali  and  his  covenant-people:  "Thy  isa.iiv,5. 
Maker  is  thy  husband ;  Jehovah  of  hosts  is  his 
name." 


Thou  shalt  no  more  be  termed  Azubah  (Forsaken)  ; 
Neither  shall  thy  land  any  more  be  termed  Shammah  (Deso- 
late) : 


Isa.  Ixii,  4. 


236  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

But  thou  shalt  be  called  Hephzi-bah  (My  delight  is  in  her), 
And  thy  land  Beulah  (Wedded) ; 
For  Jehovah  delighteth  in  thee, 
And  thy  land  shall  be  married. 

It  is  the  theme  of  the  Song  of  loves,  wherein 
Ps  xiv.  the    Psalmist  sets  forth  the  warlike  prowess,  the 

divine  majesty,  the  just  government  of  the  royal 
Bridegroom ;  and  the  personal  beauty,  the  gor- 
geous attire,  the  exultant  retinue  of  the  royal 
Bride.  It  furnishes  the  prophets  with  their  most 
frequent  and  powerful  imagery  in  their  denuncia- 
tions of  Israel's  coquetry  with  idols  and  open 
apostasy,  setting  forth  her  sins  in  this  respect  under 
the  various  terms  of  marital  infidelity.  It  is 
expressly  and  emphatically  asserted  in  the  New 
Testament.     Let  me  cite  a  single  example  : 

Eph.  V,  22-33.  Wives,  be  in  subjection  unto  your  own  husbands,  as  unto 

the  Lord.  For  the  husband  is  the  head  of  the  wife,  as  Christ 
also  is  the  head  of  the  church,  being  himself  the  saviour  of 
the  body.  But  as  the  church  is  subject  to  Christ,  so  let  the 
wives  also  be  to  their  husbands  in  everything.  Husbands, 
love  your  wives,  even  as  Christ  also  loved  the  church,  and  gave 
himself  up  for  it ;  that  he  might  sanctify  it,  having  cleansed 
it  by  the  washing  (laver)  of  water  with  the  word,  that  he 
might  present  the  church  to  himself  a  glorious  church,  not 
having  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing :  but  that  it  should 
be  holy  and  without  blemish.  Even  so  ought  husbands  also 
to  love  their  own  wives  as  their  own  bodies.  He  that  loveth 
his  own  wife  loveth  himself;  for  no  man  ever  hated  his  own 
flesh  ;  but  nourisheth  and  cherisheth  it,  even  as  Christ  also 
the  church  ;  because  we  are  members  of  his  body.  For  thii 
cause  shall  a  man  leave  his  father  and  mother,  and  shall  cleave 
to  his  wife ;  and  the  twain  shall  become  one  flesh.  This 
mystery  is  great ;  but  I  speak  in  regard  of  Christ  and  of  the 
church.  Nevertheless  do  ye  also  severally  love  each  one  his 
own  wife  even  as  himself;  and  let  the  wife  see  that  she  fear 
her  husband. 


THE   SEVKNTH   COMMANDME^'T.  237 

It  is  a  striking  instance  of  St.  Paul's  habit  of 
struggling  after  the  ideal.  Instead  of  conceiving 
the  relation  of  Christ  and  his  Church  from  the 
relation  of  husband  and  wife,  he  conceives  the  rela- 
tion of  husband  and  wife  from  the  relation  of 
Christ  and  his  Church.  Instead  of  pulling  heaven 
down  to  earth,  he  lifts  earth  up  to  heaven.  To 
him  Christ  is  the  ideal  Bridegroom ;  and  the 
Church  is  the  ideal  Bride.  As  then  Christ  can 
never  impose  a  despotic  command,  so  the  Church 
can  never  yield  a  slavish  obedience.  Here,  then, 
is  the  model  for  the  wife's  submission.^     It  is  as 

1  It  will  relieve  the  apparent  severity  of  the  apostle's  pre- 
cept, if  we  recall  the  condition  of  woman  in  the  age  in  which 
he  lived  :  in  fact,  contemporaneous  circumstances  are  as  much 
a  part  of  the  exegetical  apparatus  as  is  the  lexicon  or  the 
grammar.  Remember,  then,  that  when  Paul  wrote  his  letters, 
the  doctrine  of  human  equality  before  God  was  an  absolutely 
new  doctrine.  From  time  immemorial,  even  as  now  in  the 
pagan  East,  woman  had  been  over-ridden  in  every  direction  of 
life,  physical,  intellectual,  aesthetic,  social,  moral.  She  had 
been  regarded  almost  as  a  chattel,  at  best  but  a  convenient 
animal.  When  therefore  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  his  missionary 
tours  among  the  heathen  communities,  went  forth  announcing 
that  in  Christ  Jesus  there  was  henceforth  neither  Jew  nor  Gen- 
tile, neither  bondman  nor  freedman,  neither  male  nor  female, 
but  all  were  one  in  Christ,  no  wonder  that  pagan  woman,  sud- 
denly conscious  of  her  emancipation  and  moral  equality  with 
her  husband  before  God,  was  tempted  to  abuse  her  new-born 
freedom.  Suddenly  emancipated,  her  Oriental,  exuberant 
temperament  easily  led  her  into  undue  liberties.  Perhaps — 
e.  g.^  she  felt  impelled  to  air  her  opinions  too  freely  in  public 
assemblies  :  therefore  the  apostle  (1  Cor.  14  :  34)  bade  her  keep 
silence  in  the  churches.  Perhaps  she  felt  herself  absolved 
from  all  obligations  to  her  husband,  especially  if  that  husband 
continued  to  be,  as  was  doubtless  often  the  case,  an  uncon- 
verted, heathen  husband  :  therefore  the  apostle  says  :  "  Wives, 
submit  yourselves  unto  your  own  husbands."    But  while  all 


238  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

though  the  apostle  had  said  :  "'  Wives,  I  would 
have  you  ponder  well  the  meaning  of  the  conjugal 
relation.  It  was  divinely  ordained  to  be  a  type  of 
the  heavenly  marriage.  Christ  is  the  real  Hus- 
band, being  the  Head  of  the  Church  and  the 
Saviour  of  the  body.  Infinitely  perfect,  he  cannot 
impose  any  unjust  command.  The  Cinirch  is  the 
real  Wife :  as  such,  she  is  subject  to  her  divine 
Lord  in  everything.  In  like  manner,  your  husband, 
and  tills  because  he  is  your  husband,  is  your  supe- 
rior. Submit  yourselves  therefore  unto  him  as 
unto  the  Lord,  in  everything :  not  because  he  is 
absolutely  perfect — he  may  be  immensely  far  from 
that — but  because  he  is  a  husband,  and  therefore 
ideally  perfect.  That  is  to  say :  In  submitting 
yourself  to  your  husband,  obey  not  so  much  the 
man  as  the  idea.''  It  is  a  very  lofty  standard  of 
morals,  carrying  us  quite  into  Utopia.  But  then, 
young  gentlemen,  it  is  the  destiny  of  Christianity 
to  solidify  Utopia  into  Eealization.  In  like  man- 
ner, Christ's  love  to  his  Church  is  the  model  for 
the  husband's  love  to  his  wife  :  "  Christ  loved  the 
Church,  and  gave  himself  up  for  her."     Accord- 

this  is  true,  I  must  also  say  that,  in  the  matter  of  technical, 
formal,  visible  authority,  the  wife  is  subordinate  to  the  hus- 
band. Indeed,  a  dual  authority  is  practically  impossible ; 
there  must  be  a  head,  a  formal,  recognized  head ;  and  that 
head,  according  to  the  Bible,  is  the  man  :  (See  Gen.  2  :  21-23  ; 
3  :  16 ;  1  Cor.  11 :  3,  7-9  ;  14  :  34,  35  ;  1  Tim.  2  :  11-14 ;  Titus  2  : 
5  ;  1  Peter  3  : 1-6,  etc.)  Not  that  woman  is,  in  any  of  the  essen- 
tial, constituent  elementals  of  humanity,  inferior  to  man  :  she 
is,  as  we  have  seen,  homogeneous  in  nature  with  him,  bone  of 
his  bones  and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  But  in  the  matter  of  formal 
authority,  she  is  divinely  meant  to  be  subordinate  to  man. 


THE    SEVENTH    COMMANDMENT. 


239 


ingly,  the  husband  who  folloAvs  this  divine  model 
will  ever  gladly  sacrifice  himself  for  his  wife. 
Least  of  all,  can  he  ever  impose  a  command  or 
exercise  an  authority  which  his  wife  will  not  gladly 
obey.  And  when  any  husband  takes  advantage  of 
the  Scriptural  teaching  respecting  the  wife's  modal 
or  formal  inferiority,  and  lords  it  over  her,  or  talks 
sh'ghtingly  of  her  or  of  her  sex  as  an  inferior 
creation,  he  does  a  contemptible,  brutal  thing  ;  and 
with  Emilia,  I  could  pray  heaven  to — 

Put  in  every  honest  hand  a  whip, 

To  lash  the  rascal  naked  through  the  world, 

Even  from  the  East  to  th'  West  I 


■Othello,"  IV, 2. 


No;  it  is  Christ  who  is  the  real  Bridegroom  ;  it 
is  his  Church  who  is  the  real  Bride.  And  this 
heavenly  bridal,  let  me  repeat,  was  divinely  fore- 
shadowed from  the  very  beginning,  even  in  Eden's 
primeval  nuptial.  Let  me  advert  to  three  points 
of  analogy  between  the  two  bridals. 

And,  first :  As  Eve  owed  her  origin  to  Adam,  so  Cinisthimseif 
the  Church  owes  her  origin  to  Christ.     She  at  least      of\is  ^^^^^ 
is  no  instance  of  spontaneous  generation ;  she  is  no      ^^i^urch. 
autochthon,  self- orient  out  of  humanity  or  nature. 
She  is,  so  to  speak,  a  divine  gemmation,  budding 
from   the   bleeding  side  of   the  second  and  true 
Adam,  pierced  on  the  cross,  and  sleeping  in  that 
other  garden  which,  alas,  was  no  Eden,  but  a  ceme- 
tery, out  of  whose  sepulchre  sprung  the  true  tree 
of  life.^     In  other  words,  Jesus  Christ,  is  the  head  Eph.  i,  22,  23. 
of  the  Church,  which  is  his  body. 

^  The  idea  is  as  old  as  Augustine,  but  he  curiously  subsidizes 
it  in  behalf  of  Sacramentalism.     "At  the  beginning  of  the 


240  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Christ  and  his       Again :  As  Adam  and  Eve  were  not  twain  but  one 

Unity.  flesh,  that  is,  one  personality ;  so  are  Christ  and 

his  Church.     As  such,  tliey  share  a  common  life, 

being  one  in  nature,  in  character,  in  experience,  in 

temptation,  in   passion,  in  triumph  ;  she   his  fol- 

Lukexxii,  28.     lowcr,  coutiuuing  with  him  in  his  temptations,  fiU- 

Coi.i,24.  ing  up  on  her  part  that  which  is  lacking  of  his 

afflictions  in  her  flesh  for  his  body's  sake,  which  is 

Col.  m,  1.  the  Church  ;  risina;  with  him  from  the  dead:  over- 

Rev.  111,21.  /.    .        ,  .  ,    ,  .      .     1  .      ; 

coming,  and  sitting  down  with  him  in  his  throne ; 

Rom.viii,  17.  joint  heir  with  him  to  his  patrimony  of  the  worlds 
^  ■  *'  '  and  the  ages.    Not  that  the  Church  has  yet  attained 

1  Cor.  xiii,  9-11.  to  all  this.  She  is  still  but  a  child,  speaking  as  a 
child,  feeling  as  a  child,  thinking  as  a  child. 
But  the  day  is  approaching  when  that  which 
is  perfect  is  come,  and  that  which  is  in  part  shall 
be  done  away.     Then  shall  she  put  away  childish 

Eph.iv,  13.  things.  Then  shall  she  attain  unto  tlie  unity  of 
the  faith,  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God, 
unto  a  full-grown  personality,  unto  the  measure  of 
the  stature  of  Christ,  standing  before  him  in  very 
truth  as  his  helpmeet  and  complemental,  his  peer 
in  the  second  Eden  as  Eve  was  Adam's  peer  in  the 

human  race  the  woman  was  made  of  a  rib  taken  from  the  side 
of  the  man  while  he  slept ;  for  it  seemed  fit  that  even  then 
Christ  and  his  Church  should  be  foreshadowed  in  this  event. 
For  that  sleep  of  the  man  was  the  death  of  Christ,  whose  side, 
as  he  hung  lifeless  upon  the  cross,  was  pierced  with  a  spear, 
and  there  flowed  from  it  blood  and  water ;  and  these  we  know 
to  be  the  sacraments  by  which  the  Church  is  'built  up.'  For 
Scripture  uses  this  very  word,  not  saying,  *  he  formed,'  or 
*  framed,'  but '  built  her  up  into  a  woman  ; '  whence  also  the 
apostle  speaks  of  *  the  building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
which  is  the  Church.' "— "  City  of  God,"  Book  XXII,  ch.  17. 


THE   SEVENTH   COMMANDMENT.  241 

first.  Then  shall  he  indeed  proudly  present  her  to  Eph.v,27. 
himself  as  his  own  Lady-elect,  even  the  Church, 
glorious  and  holy,  without  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any 
such  thing.  Even  now,  in  view  of  this  magnifi- 
cent certainty,  she  may  well  be  called  by  her  divine 
Husband's  own  name — Christ,  Christian.^  O 
Church  of  the  living  God,  espoused  as  a  pure  vir-  2Cor.  xi,2,3. 
gin  to  one  husband,  even  Christ,  beware  lest  by 
any  means  as  the  serpent  beguiled  Eve  in  his 
craftiness,  so  thy  heart  should  be  corrupted  from 
the  simplicity  and  the  purity  that  is  toward  Christ, 
from  thy  single-heartedness  toward  thy  one  Bride- 
groom. 

Once  more :  As  there  was  but  one  Adam  and  As  but  One 
one  Eve,  so  there  is  but  one  Christ  and  one  Church,  but  One 
How  mistaken,  how  egotistic,  how  sinful,  the  sane-  "^^  ' 

tity  of  St.  Catharine  of  Alexandria,  and  St.  Catha- 
rine of  Sienna,  in  fancying  each  for  herself  that  she 
was  the  spouse  of  Christ !  No ;  as  there  is  but  one 
Bridegroom,  so  there  is  but  one  Bride.  And  that 
Bride  is  the  one  Church  of  the  living  God,  of  what- 
ever land,  or  age,  or  sect,  who  call  upon  the  name  i  cor.  i,  2. 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  every  plac-e,  their  Lord 
and  ours.  Neither  Christ  nor  his  Church  is  a  mon- 
strosity, neither  hydra-headed  nor  hundred-bodied. 
Many  stones,  indeed,  yet  but  one  Temple ;  many 
branches,  yet  but  one  Vine;  many  sheep,  yet 
but  one  Shepherd;  many  members,  yet  but  one 
Body ;  many  paranymphs  or  virgins,  yet  but  one 
Bride.  Aye,  monogamy  is  the  law  alike  for  both 
Edens. 

*  Perhaps  also  Kvpios,  KvpiaKrj,  Kirche,  Kirk,  Church. 


242 


THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Eph.  iT,  1-6. 


Cor.  xii,  12, 13. 


I  beseech  you  then  to  walk  worthily  of  the  calling  wherewith 
ye  were  called,  with  all  lowliness  and  meekness,  with  long- 
suffering,  forbearing  one  another  in  love ;  giving  diligence  to 
keep  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  There  is 
one  body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  also  ye  were  called  in  one 
hope  of  your  calling;  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,  one 
God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all,  and  through  all,  and  in 
all.  For  as  the  body  is  one,  and  hath  many  members, 
and  all  the  members  of  the  body,  being  many,  are  one 
body ;  so  also  is  Christ.  For  in  one  Spirit  were  we  all  bap- 
tized into  one  body,  whether  Jews  or  Greeks,  whether  bond  or 
free  ;  and  were  all  made  to  drink  of  one  Spirit. 


George  Robin- 
8oa. 


Head  of  thy  Church  beneath, 

The  catholic,  the  true. 
On  all  her  members  breathe, 

Her  broken  frame  renew  : 
Then  shall  thy  perfect  will  be  done. 
When  Christians  love  and  live  as  one  1 


The  Bride- 
groom's 
Promised 
Return. 


Isa.  liv,  7,  8. 


Rev.  xix,  6-9. 


And  now  I  come  to  my  last  point :  The  Bride- 
groom's promised  return.  For  now  it  is  only  the 
espousal  time,  the  Church's  secret  as  a  pure  virgin 
to  Christ :  then  shall  be  the  open,  everlasting  bridal, 
even  the  Bridegroom's  joyous  presentation  of  the 
Church  to  himself  before  all  tlie  universe  in  all  her 
incomparable  beauty.  Then  shall  it  be  seen,  that 
although  for  a  small  moment  he  had  forsaken  us, 
it  was  that  he  might  with  great  mercies  and  ever- 
lasting kindness  gather  us.  Even  now  may  it  be 
ours  to  hear,  as  it  were,  the  voice  of  a  great  multi- 
tude, and  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the 
voice  of  mighty  thunders,  saying  :  Hallelujah  :  for 
the  Lord  our  God,  the  Almighty,  reigneth.  Let 
us  rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad,  and  let  us  give  the 
glory  unto  him  :  for  the  marriage  of  the  Lamb  is 
come,   and  his   wife    hath    made    herself    ready. 


THE   SEVENTH   COMMANDMENT.  2-13 

Blessed  are  they  who  are  bidden  to  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb. 

Ascend,  Beloved,  to  the  joy ;  Horatius  Bonar. 

The  festal  day  is  come ; 
To-night  the  Lamb  doth  feast  his  own, 
To-night  he  with  his  Bride  sits  down, 
To-night  puts  on  the  spousal  crown, 

In  the  great  upper  room. 

Sorrow  and  sighing  are  no  more, 

The  weeping  hours  are  past ; 
To-night  the  waiting  will  be  done, 
To-night  the  wedding  robe  put  on, 
The  glory  and  the  joy  begun  ; 

The  crown  has  come  at  last. 

Ascend,  Beloved,  to  the  feast ; 

Make  haste,  thy  day  is  come  ; 
Thrice  blest  are  they  the  Lamb  doth  call, 
To  share  the  heavenly  festival. 
In  the  new  Salem's  palace  hall; 

Our  everlasting  home. 

O  God,  who  hast  prepared  for  those  who  love  thee  such  good    Collect, 
things  as  pass  man's  understanding;  Pour  into  our  hearts 
such  love  toward  thee,  that  we,  loving  thee  above  all  things, 
may  obtain  thy  promises,  which  exceed  all  that  we  can  desire  ; 
through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen. 


IX. 

THE  EIGHTH  COMMANDMENT. 
Thou  Shalt  not  steal. 

Exodus  XX,  13. 


IX. 
THE  EIGHTH  COMMANDMENT. 

What  is  the  origin  of  property?  What  is  the  Problems  o 
basis  of  property?  What  are  the  rights  of  prop-  ^^^'"^  ^' 
erty?  What  are  the  limitations  of  property?  In 
brief,  and  comprehensively:  What  in  property? 
These  are  basal  questions,  lying  among  the  very 
roots  of  society,  justly  engaging  the  deepest  atten- 
tion of  modern  sociologists. 

It  is  not  for  me  to  discuss  these  grave  questions  Man's  Origi- 
technically,  from  the  platform  of  the  professional 
political  economist.  But  it  is  for  me  to  discuss 
them  in  light  of  what  I  believe  to  be  a  divine 
revelation.  Listen,  then,  to  one  of  the  primeval 
archives  of  mankind : 

God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  like-  Gen.  i,  26-28. 
ness  :  and  let  them  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle,  and  over  all  the 
earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  upon  the 
earth.  And  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image 
of  God  created  he  him  ;  male  and  female  created  he  them.  And 
God  blessed  them  :  and  God  said  unto  them.  Be  fruitful,  and 
multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it;  and  have 
dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air, 
and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

It  was  man's  original  commission,  humanity's 
primal  charter.  And  history  is  the  record  of  man's 
execution  of  his  original  commission ;  civilization 
is  the  story  of  man's  unfolding  of  the  privileges 

247 


248  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

of  his  primal  charter.  Wherever  civilized  man 
has  gone,  there  he  has  been  subduing  the  earth, 
gaining  dominion  over  everything  that  moveth  on 
it.  Behold,  for  example,  man's  dominion  over  the 
animals  of  nature ;  see  how  he  makes  the  fish  feed 
him,  the  sheep  clothe  him,  the  horse  draw  him,  the 
fowl  of  the  air  yield  him  the  pinions  with  which  to 
spread  his  own  opinions.  Behold  man's  dominion 
over  the  face  of  nature ;  see  how  he  dikes  out  the 
ocean,  as  in  Holland;  digs  canals,  as  at  Suez; 
shatters  reefs,  as  at  Hell  Grate ;  spans  waters,  as 
East  River:  tunnels  mountains,  as  St.  Gothard; 
builds  railways,  as  from  Atlantic  to  Pacific;  re- 
claims jungles  and  deserts  and  pestilential  swamps; 
brings  about  interchanges  of  vegetable  and  animal 
life;  even  modifies  the  very  climates.  Behold 
man's  dominion  over  the  resources  of  nature; 
see  how  he  subsidizes  its  mineral  substances,  turn- 
ing its  sands  into  lenses,  its  clay  into  bricks,  its  iron 
into  countless  shapes  for  countless  purposes;  see 
how  he  subsidizes  its  vegetable  products,  making 
its  grains  feed  him,  its  cottons  clothe  him,  its  forests 
house  him,  its  coals  warm  him.  Behold  man's 
dominion  over  the  mechanical  powers  of  nature ; 
see  how  he  makes  its  levers  lift  his  loads,  its  wheels 
and  axles  weigh  his  anchors,  its  pulleys  raise  his 
weights,  its  inclined  planes  move  his  blocks,  its 
wedges  split  his  ledges,  its  screws  propel  his  ships. 
Behold  man's  dominion  over  the  forces  of  nature ; 
see  how  he  makes  the  air  waft  his  crafts,  the  water 
run  his  mills,  the  heat  move  his  engines,  the  elec- 
tricity  bear   his    messages;    see   how  he  converts 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  249 

gravitation  itself  into  a  means  of  levitation.  What 
a  magnificent  illustration  of  all  this  was  our  own 
glorious  International  Exposition  of  1876 !   Yerily, 

Thou  hast  made  man  but  little  lower  than  God,  Ps.  viii,  5  9 

And  crownest  him  with  glory  and  honour. 

Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over  the  works  of 

thy  hands ; 
Thou  hast  put  all  things  under  his  feet : 
All  sheep  and  oxen, 
Yea,  and  the  beasts  of  the  field ; 
The  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the  sea, 
Whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths  of  the  seas. 
O  Jehovah,  our  Lord, 
How  excellent  is  thy  name  in  all  the  earth  I 

Such  is  humanity's  Magna  Charta.  All  is  in  right 
of  Eden's  majestic  commission :  "  Subdue  the 
earth." 

And  this  commission  to  subdue  the  earth — that  Labor  the 
is,  to  subsidize  nature — is  the  moral  basis  of  prop-  Property. 
erty.  A  man  has  the  right  to  own  what  he  wins, 
provided  he  wins  it  under  the  authority  and 
according  to  the  terms  of  the  divine  charter.  Not 
that  he  absolutely  owns  what  he  wins ;  for  he  is 
not  the  creator  of  the  earth — he  is  only  an  admin- 
istrator of  it ;  not  the  owner — he  is  only  a  tenant ; 
not  the  lord  paramount — he  is  only  a  feudatory. 
In  other  words,  man  holds  the  estate  of  earth  in 
trust,  his  only  right  here  being  the  right  of  usu- 
fruct. But  relatively,  in  relation  to  his  fellows, 
man  owns,  at  least  within  limits,  what  he  rightfully 
wins.  What  these  limits  are  constitute  one  of  the 
gravest  problems  of  political  economy  and  soci- 
ology itself.  But  to  this  we  shall  recur.  Mean- 
while observe :  Labor  (or,  to  revert  to  the  poetic 


250  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

-  phraseology  of  Eden's  charter,  obedience  to  the 
divine  command  to  subdue  the  earth)  is  the  moral 
source  and  basis  and  condition  of  the  right  to  prop- 
erty. The  right  to  property  rests  not  on  mere 
occupancy,  or  mere  cultivation,  or  mere  physical 
force  of  any  kind ;  the  right  to  property  rests  on 
obedience  to  the  Creator's  mandate  to  subdue  the 
earth  to  the  Creator's  own  sway.  Hence,  property 
is  a  divine  institution ;  the  right  of  property  is  a 
sacred  right.  Nor  can  I  do  better  here  than  to  cite 
a  paragraph  from  that  masterly  treatise,  entitled 
"  The  Nation,"  by  the  late  Dr.  Elisha  Mulford : 

Mulford's  "  Na-  The  ground  of  the  right  in  the  existence  of  property,  and 
Uon,  c  ap.  ^^  ^j^g  right  to  property,  is  in  the  vocation  from  God  in  the 
world,  of  the  individual  and  of  the  nation.  Property  is  the 
material  for  the  work  of  man  in  his  vocation  on  the  earth,  and 
in  that  alone  is  the  ground  of  its  right.  If  property  becomes 
in  itself  an  end,  then  personality  is  subjected  to  the  things 
which  it  possesses.  If  it  be  held  apart  from  the  vocation  of 
man  and  the  moral  relations  and  obligations  involved  in  that, 
then  it  becomes  mere  possession,  the  instrument  of  a  selfish 
interest,  and  the  means  for  the  degradation  of  personality. 

To  the  individual  and  to  the  nation  God  gives  his  powers 
and  his  working  field,  and  these  are  the  talents  of  each,  and  in 
this  alone  does  property  consist.  It  is  thus,  as  it  is  given  in 
and  for  the  vocation  of  man  on  the  earth,  that  its  use  aflFords  a 
ground  for  the  manifestation  of  character,  and  there  may  be 
in  it  the  expression  of  individuality,  and  elements  of  culture 
and  freedom.  In  this  also  is  the  sign  of  the  sacredness  of  the 
relation  which  the  individual  and  the  nation  bear  to  the  earth. 
Thus,  also,  if  there  be  no  recognition  of  a  vocation  which  the 
individual  and  the  nation  are  to  fulfill,  then  the  origin  of  prop- 
erty is  in  the  arbitrary  or  the  accidental ;  it  is  in  its  origin 
arbitrary — the  seizure  by  force  and  choice  of  that  which  each 
may  lay  hold  of ;  or  accidental — that  which  each  in  his  fortune 
may  stumble  on  or  is  in  luck  to  obtain,  and  it  is  the  sign  only 
of  the  avarice  of  men  who  clutch  it  in  their  grasp,  or  the  risk 
of  men  who  find  it  by  the  way.    Dr.  Brownson's  definition  of 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  251 

property  is  as  profound  as  it  is  beautiful — "Property  is  com- 
munion with  God,  through  the  material  world." 

-  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  sense  of  ownership  is  Sense  of 
one  of  the  necessary  outgrowths  of  civilization,  a  Human 
And  the  higher  the  civilization,  the  more  personal  T®^®^- 
this  sense  of  ownership.  Here  is  one  of  the 
secrets  of  the  elevation  of  oppressed  races.  Proba- 
bly the  richest  blessing  which  the  Act  of  Emanci- 
pation conferred  on  the  freedmen  was  the  recogni- 
tion of  their  right  to  own  property.  One  of  the 
surest  ways  of  elevating  the  Indians,  as  we  are 
beginning  to  see  and  acknowledge,  is  by  granting 
them  proprietary  rights.  One  of  the  peculiar 
blessings  of  our  Philadelphia  system  of  building 
associations  is  that  it  enables  so  many  of  our  towns- 
people to  own  homes,  and  so  fosters  the  spirit  of 
industry,  economy,  independence,  and  domesticity. 
In  fact,  it  is  only  in  imaginary  commonwealths, 
like  the  Atlantis  of  Plato,  or  the  Utopia  of  Sir 
Thomas  More  (the  very  meaning  of  "U-topia," 
od,  TOTto?^  is  "  no  place  ")  that  society  exists  without 
property.  The  commonwealth  proposed  by  Gon- 
zalo,  the  honest  old  counsellor  of  Naples,  is  as 
impossible  as  it  is  picturesque : 

I'  the  commonwealth  I  would  by  contraries  ••  The  Tempest," 

Execute  all  things  :  for  no  kind  of  traffic  ^  ^ 

Would  I  admit ;  no  name  of  magistrate  ; 

Letters  should  not  be  known  ;  riches,  poverty, 

And  use  of  service,  none  ;  contract,  succession, 

Bourn,  bound  of  land,  tilth,  vineyard,  none ; 

No  use  of  metal,  corn,  or  wine,  or  oil : 

No  occupation  ;  all  men  idle,  all ; 

And  women  too  ;  but  innocent  and  pure^ 

No  sovereignty  : 


252  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

All  things  in  common  nature  should  produce, 
Without  sweat  or  endeavour  :  treason,  felony, 
Sword,  pike,  knife,  gun,  or  need  of  any  engine, 
Would  I  not  have  ;  but  nature  should  bring  forth, 
Of  its  own  kind,  all  foisson,  all  abundance. 
To  feed  my  innocent  people. 

No,  young  gentlemen,  Society,  in  any  just  sense  of 
the  term,  cannot  long  exist  without  the  emergence  of 
property.  Moreover :  property  differentiates  men. 
The  very  raising  of  the  question  "mine"  and 
"  thine"  individualizes  men,  giving  them  personal 
characteristics  and  personal  responsibilities.  Prop- 
erty: why  it  is  the  etymological  daughter  of  the 
LaLin  proprius,  meaning  special,  peculiar  (from 
peculiarisj  belonging  to  one,  one's  own),  personal. 
In  brief,  and  comprehensively :  The  sense  of  own- 
ership is  one  of  the  characterizing  tokens  of 
humankind,  separating  man  discretively  and  ever- 
lastingly from  brute.  The  animal  has  its  habitat, 
but  does  not  own  it :  man  alone  can  own  his  own 
home.  It  is  this  sense  of  rightfully  owning  prop- 
erty— whether  it  may  have  been  acquired  by  gift, 
by  inheritance,  or  by  toil — which  gives  to  man  a 
sense  of  dignity  and  responsibility  impossible  to  a 
mere  animal.  Yes;  it  is  right  to  get  and  to  keep 
property. 
vianhasLimi-  But  now  we  must  look  at  another  fundamental 
tatious.  principle:  Man  himself  has  limitations.  In  fact, 
human  life  itself  is  largely  a  matter  of  definitions, 
or  discoveries  of  divine  boundaries.  The  best 
definition  of  a  man  is  when  you  have  clearly  de- 
fined {de,  finis)  him — that  is,  marked  the  limits  of 
him.     For  no  man  really  understands  his  place  in 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  253 

society  until  he  has  first  discovered  his  own  limita- 
tions. And  this  discovery  is  of  slow  growth. 
How  profoundly  as  well  as  musically  the  laureate 
has  described  it : 

"In  Memor- 
The  baby  new  to  earth  and  sky,  iam."   XLIV 

What  time  his  tender  palm  is  prest 

Against  the  circle  of  the  breast, 
Has  never  thought  that  "  this  is  I "  : 

But  as  he  grows  he  gathers  much, 

And  learns  the  use  of  "  I "  and  "  me," 

And  finds  "  I  am  not  what  I  see. 
And  other  than  the  things  I  touch." 

So  rounds  he  to  a  separate  mind 

From  whence  clear  memory  may  begin, 

As  through  the  frame  that  binds  him  in 
His  isolation  grows  defined. 

And  it  is  God  himself  who  assigns  our  limita- 
tions, determining  our  appointed  seasons,  and  the  Act8xvii,26. 
bounds  of  our  habitation.    What  a  signal  instance 
of  this  was  the  divine  allotment  of  the  land  of 
Canaan  under  Joshua ; 

Te  shall  inherit  the  land  by  lot  according  to  your  families  ;    Num.  xxxiii,54 
to  the  more  ye  shall  give  the  more  inheritance,  and  to  the 
fewer  thou  shalt  give  the  less  inheritance  :  wheresoever  the  lot 
falleth  to  any  man,  that  shall  be  his ;  according  to  the  tribes 
of  your  fathers  shall  ye  inherit. 

It  is  this  divine  allotment  "  which  "  to  use  the  "Jewish 

Church  "  I 

graphic  language  of  Dean  Stanley,  "has  made  the  289- 
latter  half  of  the  Book  of  Joshua  the  geographi- 
cal manual  of  the  Holy  Land,  the  Domesday- 
Book  of  the  Conquest  of  Palestine.''  I  believe, 
young  gentlemen,  that  a  profound  mysterious 
sociological  truth  still  underlies  the  ancient  law- 
22 


254  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

giver's  statement  in  his  farewell  song  in  the  plains 
of  Moab : 

Dent.  xxxii,8, 9.  When  the  Most  High  gave  to  the  nations  their  inheritance, 

When  he  separated  the  children  of  men, 
He  set  the  bounds  of  the  peoples 
According  to  the  number  of  the  children  of  Israel. 
For  Jehovah's  portion  is  his  people  ; 
Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance. 

But  whatever  the  venerable  patriarch  may  have 
meant  by  these  mysterious  lines,  this  thing  is  cer- 
tain :  human  life  is  not  a  chance  lottery:  human  life 
is  a  divine  allotment.     Hearken  to  the  Wise  Man  : 

ProT.  xTi,  33.  The  lot  is  cast  into  the  lap ; 

But  the  whole  disposing  thereof  is  of  Jehovah. 

May  it  be  for  you  and  me  to  join  in  the  Psalmist's 
grateful  song : 

Pb.  xvi,  6, 6.  Jehovah  is  the  portion  of  mine  inheritance  and  of  my  cup : 

Thou  maintainest  my  lot. 

The  lines  are  fallen  unto  me  in  pleasant  places  ; 
Tea,  I  have  a  goodly  heritage. 

May  each  of  us  ever  be  found  "standing  in  his  own 
lot  and  place ! ''  In  other  words,  may  all  of  us 
ever  be  found  devoutly  acknowledging  this  great 
principle  of  divine  limitations :  each  of  us,  on  the 
one  hand,  stoutly  maintaining  his  own  allotment, 
and  each  of  us,  on  the  other  hand,  cheerfully  recog- 
nizing the  allotments  of  others.  So  shall  each  of 
us  be  true  to  his  own  vocation  as  a  member  of 

Limitations        ^^""^^°  S^^l^ty- 

Specially  Now  this  doctriue  of  limitations  is   especially 

True  of  /.  ,  i 

Property.      true  of  propertv.     The  very  fact  that  a  man  has 


THE    EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  255 

property  is  a  limiting  fact,  investing  him  with 
moral  boundaries  which  no  other  man  has  a  right 
to  cross.  For,  as  it  is  right  to  acquire  property,  so 
it  is  right  to  retain  property.  It  is  no  mere  play 
of  words  to  say  that  what  a  man  owns  is  his  own. 
And  being  his  own,  what  he  owns  cannot  at  the 
same  time  be  anothers.  And  all  men  have  this 
right  to  own:  not  indeed  the  right  to  own  co- 
equally — that  is  the  Communistic  delusion — but 
the  co-equal  right  to  own  something — that  is  the 
Ciiristian  doctrine;  and  this  is  as  true  for  the 
stevedore  as  for  the  millionaire.  The  right  of 
the  poorest  widow  to  her  mite  is  as  sacred  and 
inviolable  as  the  right  of  the  richest  nation  to 
its  exchequer. 

And  now  we  are  prepared  for  the  Eighth  Com-  The  Eighth 
mandment:  Thou  shoM  not  steal,  ment"^^"  ' 

This   word   "steal"   is   a    short,   unambiguous,  ^^'^"•is. 
English   word,  as   open    in   its   meaning  as  it  is 
stealthy  in  its  working.     Let  us,  then,  deal  with  it 
honestly. 

For  our  commandment  is  still  greatly  needed.  OurCom- 

,™  -    —  .  T  ,  mandment 

io  steal,  1  am  sorry  to  say,  is  a  universal  terapta-      Needed. 

tion,  common  to  all  sorts  of  people.     True,  I  would 

not   go  as  far  as  Hamlet  went  when   he   said  to 

Polonius,   "Ay,   sir;  to  be  honest,  as  this  world   "Hamlet," ir, 2 

goes,  is  to  be  one  man  picked  out  of  ten  thousand"; 

or  when,  having  asked,  "What's  the  news?"  and 

Rosencrantz  having  replied,  "None,  my  lord,  but 

that  the  world's  grown  honest,"  the  royal   Dane 

grimly  remarked, "  Then  is  Doomsday  near."    No; 

I  believe  that  there  are  a  great  many  more  honest 


256  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

people  in  this  world  than  society  is  commonly  cred- 
ited with.  Nevertheless,  stealing  is  a  frequent  vice 
of  society,  common  to  poor  and  rich,  savage  and 
savant.  This  temptation  to  steal  springs  from 
various  sources.  For  example :  It  often  spriugs 
from  tlie  sense  of  necessity  :  this  it  is  which,  as  you 
remember,  gives  such  tragic  power  to  Victor 
Hugo's  "  Les  Miserables,"  whose  hero,  Jean  Val- 
jean,  stole  a  loaf  of  bread.  Again,  the  temptation 
to  steal  springs  from  indolence,  or,  to  use  a  good, 
or  rather  bad,  old  French-Latin  word,  laziness: 
for  there  are  not  a  few  persons  (possibly  you  know 
some  of  them)  who,  iustead  of  getting  an  honest 
living  by  working,  prefer  to  get  it  by  what  they 
call  their  wits,  resorting  to  all  sorts  of  shifts  and 
tricks,  which  are  really  stealings.  Again,  the 
temptation  to  steal  springs  from  dissolute  or  what 
is  called  fast  living :  how  many  of  the  embezzle- 
ments which  so  often  startle  the  community  spring 
from  the  fact  that  the  embezzlers  had  entered  on 
careers  of  personal  debauchery  !  Again,  the  temp- 
tation to  steal  springs  from  the  love  of  display: 
how  many  of  the  defalcations  which  land  our  citi- 
zens in  prison  or  in  Canada  are  owing  to  their  pas- 
sion for  equipage,  for  furniture,  for  jewelry,  for 
fashion!  Again,  and  chiefly,  the  temptation  to 
steal  springs  from  the  haste  to  become  rich :  how 
!  Tim.  vi,  10.  true  it  is  that  the  love  of  money  is  a  root  of  all 
kinds  of  evil !  And  the  poor  may  love  money  just 
as  much  as  the  rich.  How  scorching  the  stigma 
with  which  the  blind  bard  of  the  Commonwealth 
brands  the  lover  of  money  : 


THE    EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  257 

Mammon  led  them  on  ;  "  Paradise 

Mammon,  the  least  erected  spirit  that  fell  Lost,"  Book  I 

From  heaven  ;  for  e'en  in  heaven  his  looks  and  thoughts 
Were  always  downward  bent ;  admiring  more 
The  riches  of  heaven's  pavement,  trodden  gold, 
Than  aught  divine  or  holy  else  enjoyed 
In  vision  beatific. 

And  just  because  this  temptation  to  dishonesty — 
springing  from  the  haste  to  become  rich,  is  so 
universal  and  powerful,  it  extorted  from  the  ancient 
prophets  their  most  eloquent  denunciations,  fiercely 
accenting  their  oratory  with  the  wrathful  "Woe, 
woe,  woe ! '' 

And  now  let  me  pass  to  mention  some  of  the  Samples  of 
many  samples  of  stealing — many,  I  say ;  for  the         ^^  "*^* 
varieties  of  thieving  are  so  great  that  the  name  of 
this  evil  genius,  like  that  of  the  Gerasene  unclean 
demon,  is  Legion.     Of  course,  I  need  not  speak  Mark  v,  1-9. 
of  overt  violations  of  our  commandment,   those 
samples  of  stealing  which  the  law  recognizes  and 
brands  as  thefts.    I  need  not  speak,  for  example,  of 
professional  robbers,  or  footpads,  or  smugglers,  or 
burglars,  or  pickpockets,  or  shoplifters,  or  forgers, 
or  swindlers.     Neither  need  I  speak  of  those  who 
keep  in  their  bags  divers  weights,  a  great  and  a  Deut.  xxv,  13. 
small,   making  the  ephah   small  and    the   shekel  Amos  vni.  5-7 
gn^at,  and   dealing   falsely    with    balances  of  de- 
ceit, that  they  may  buy  the  poor  for  silver,  and 
the  needy  for  a  pair  of  shoes,  and  sell  the  refuse 
of  the  wheat.     Let   me   rather   speak   of  covert 
violations  of  our  commandment,  carried  on   un- 
der sanction   of  society,   excepting   an    occasional 
rebuke  by  the  especially  scrupulous.     The   vari- 


ings. 


258  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

eties  of  this  kind  of  stealing  are  really  alarming, 
and  almost  infinite. 
Private  Steal-  Let  US  first  glance  at  the  case  of  private  steal- 
ings. For  example:  There  is  the  taking  advantage 
of  the  ignorant  in  a  bargain.  Now  I  am  very  far 
from  saying  that  a  man  who  has  the  opportunity 
of  using  the  telegraph,  or  cable,  should  never  use 
it  to  his  personal  advantage.  Nevertheless,  I  think 
that  a  fine  sense  of  honor  and  justice  will  tend  to 
make  him  at  least  careful  how  he  uses  information 
not  given  to  the  general  public :  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  the  selfish  abuse  of  knowledge.  Again  : 
There  is  the  taking  advantage  of  the  necessitous, 
when  they  lie  prostrate  and  helpless,  demanding 
from  them,  for  instance,  extortionate  interest  for 
the  use  of  money,  exorbitant  rent  for  premises  or 
tools,  or  extravagant  prices  for  commodities. 
Again  :  There  is  the  refusing,  I  will  not  say  lawful 
wages,  but  I  do  say  fair  wages — that  is,  just  com- 
pensation to  servants,  whether  in  the  family,  the 
farm,  the  factory,  the  store,  or  the  bank  :  for  every 
man  born  into  this  world  is  entitled,  by  the  very 
fact  of  his  existence  upon  this  footstool  of  God,  to 
a  living.  I  do  not,  of  course,  say  a  luxurious 
living,  but  I  do  say  a  decent  living.  The  em- 
ployee is  quite  as  much  entitled  to  a  respectable 
living  as  his  employer  is  entitled  to  net  profits. 
In  brief,  the  compensation  should  be  just :  of 
course,  a  married  man,  having  a  family  to  sup- 
port, needs  larger  wages  for  the  same  kind  of 
work  than  a  single  man  does:  this  is  but  fair; 
for  society  can  liye  only  through  the  family  insti- 


THE    EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  259 

tution.  Again  :  There  are  the  misrepresentations 
on  the  part  of  the  seller — misrepresentations  some- 
times direct,  as  when  he  suggests  what  is  false  in 
his  advertisements ;  sometimes  indirect,  as  when 
he  suppresses  what  is  true  concerning  defects  of  iiis 
offered  goods.  It  is  curious  to  observe  in  passing 
that,  while  the  ancients  cheated  chiefly  in  quantity, 
as  when  they  made  the  ephah  small,  and  the  shekel  Aino3viii,5. 
great,  we  moderns  cheat  chiefly  in  quality,  as  when 
we  interweave  textiles  with  shoddy,  or  adulterate 
butter  with  oleomargarine.  I  suspect  that  qualita- 
tive lying  is  even  worse  than  quantitative.  Again  : 
There  are  the  misrepresentations  on  the  part  of  the 
buyer.  So  long  ago  as  the  time  of  Solomon,  this 
modern  habit  was  in  vogue  : 

It  is  naught,  it  is  naught,  saith  the  buyer  :  Prov.  xx,  14. 

But  when  he  is  gone  his  way,  then  he  boasteth. 

This  vulgar  habit  of  beating  down  the  price  of 
articles  is  a  two-edged  sword.  When  a  buyer 
goes  into  a  store  to  buy  a  piece  of  goods,  and 
undertakes  to  beat  down  the  price,  not  because  he 
thinks  it  unfair,  but  simply  because  he  likes  to 
beat  down,  and  succeeds  in  his  attempt,  he  thinks 
he  is  '^  smart.''  But  the  seller  has  been  smarter ; 
for,  knowing  his  customer's  habit,  he  put  his  first 
price  high  enough  to  bear  the  depression.  The 
trouble  is  that  both  buyer  and  seller  have  been 
using  divers  weights,  a  great  and  a  small,  each 
talking  avoirdupois  for  the  other,  but  meaning 
troy ;  each  talking  troy  for  himself,  but  meaning 
avoirdupois.     How  constantly  every  buyer  has  to 


260  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

be  ou  the  alert  lest  he  be  taken  in  by  "  the  short 
ton  '^ !  Again :  There  is  the  delay  in  the  pay- 
ment of  debts  when  due.  Hearken  to  the  Wise 
Man: 

Prov.  iii,  28.  Say  not  unto  thy  neighbour,  Go,  and  come  again, 

And  to-morrow  I  will  give, 
When  thou  hast  it  by  thee. 

For  the  delay  to  meet  obligations  when  they  ma- 
ture amounts  to  stealing.  Again :  There  is  the  con- 
tracting of  debts  beyond  any  reasonable  possibility 
of  paying  them,  the  indulgence  in  venturesome 
speculations,  the  living  beyond  income — these, 
and  such  as  these,  morally  surveyed,  are  stealings. 
Again:  There  is  the  practice  of  endorsing,  or  going 
security.     Hearken  again  to  the  Wise  Man : 

Prov.  xi,  15.  He  that  is  surety  for  a  stranger  shall  smart  for  it : 

But  he  that  hateth  suretiship  is  sure. 

Not  that  thia  adage  of  the  wise  man  forbids  kind- 
ness to  a  person  who  has  been  unfortunate  in 
business :  but  it  does  forbid  rash  endorsement,  or 
inconsiderate  lending  of  name  without  understand- 
ing all  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  It  is  right  for 
you  to  help  your  friend  when  he  is  in  trouble :  but  it 
is  not  right  for  you  to  help  him,  however  much  in 
trouble,  if  your  endorsement  of  his  note  is  going  to 
cost  some  other  friend  of  yours  his  comfortable 
home.  To  aid  one  man  by  endorsing  him  may  re- 
sult in  stealing  from  many  men.  Again  :  There  is 
the  habit  of  begging  for  endorsements  :  for  example  : 
tempting  one  to  misrepresent,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
amount  of   assets,  and,  on   the   other   hand,  the 


THE    EIGHTH    CX)MMAXDME>T.  2G1 

amount  of  liabilities ;  contracting  liabilities  without 
the  knowledge  of  the  endorser ;  keeping  up  appear- 
ances when  insolvent :  in  brief,  offering  a  premium 
for  the  use  of  your  name.  I  know  that  when  a 
man  has  been  unfortunate,  and  no  one  but  himself 
knows  it,  the  world's  advice  often  is :  "  Oh,  keep 
up  appearances ;  don't  dismiss  your  coachman ;  the 
tide  will  turn  ;  your  trouble  need  not  be  known/' 
Friend,  you  have  no  right  to  do  that  when  the 
name  of  your  kinsman  or  kind  acquaintance  is  on 
the  back  of  your  paper.  If  you  conceal  your  mis- 
fortune from  him,  you  are  stealing.  Again  :  There 
is  the  dishonest  taking  advantage  of  bankrupt 
laws  :  I  mean,  the  profiting  by  ambiguities,  by  mis- 
constructions or  misapprehensions,  by  oversights  in 
a  statement  of  particulars,  by  legal  loopholes  and 
quibbles.  Young  gentlemen,  I  am  not  speaking  here 
as  an  expounder  of  current  or  conventional  morali- 
ties :  but  I  am  speaking  here  as  a  teacher  of  distinc- 
tively Christian  principles.  I  declare,  then,  that  the 
refusing,  after  the  return  of  prosperity,  to  pay 
debts  not  legally  binding  or  from  which  you  have 
been  legally  released,  is  a  genuine  case  of  stealing. 
Again :  There  is  the  withholding  from  foreign 
authors  the  proceeds  due  them  for  sales  of  their 
literary  property  in  this  country.  Our  poet-diplo- 
matist, himself  President  of  the  American  Copy- 
right League,  puts  the  point  tersely  thus : 

In  vain  we  call  old  notions  fudge  James  Russell 


And  bend  our  conscience  to  our  dealing ; 
The  Ten  Commandments  will  not  budge, 
And  stealing  toill  continue  stealing. 


Lowell. 


262  THE  TEN   COMMANDME>sTS. 

Again :  There  is  the  evading  of  government  taxes 
and  custom-house  duties  by  making  defective  or 
ambiguous  returns — a,  mode  of  stealing  which,  I 
regret  to  say,  is  not  altogether  unfashionable  among 
people  of  position.  Once  more  ;  There  is  the  lazy 
subsistence  or  dependence  on  charity  (and  there  is  a 
great  deal  more  of  this  than  we  at  first  recognize) ; 
the  dependence  on  friends  to  eke  us  out,  when,  if 
we  had  been  a  little  less  slothful  in  diligence  as 

Rom.  xii,  11.  well  as  a  little  more  fervent  in  spirit,  we  might  not 
have  needed  their  aid :  the  sluggard,  I  take  it,  is 
quite  a  prince  among  thieves.  Such  are  some  of 
the  many  samples  of  private  stealings.  Did  I  not 
say  their  name  is  Legion  ? 

Official  steal-  Let  me  now  for  a  few  moments  speak  of  the 
*°^'^*  -  case  of  official  stealings,  no  matter  what  the  office 
is,  whether  public  or  private,  whether  in  a  bank,  or 
in  a  store,  or  in  an  institution,  or  under  the  govern- 
ment. Office  is  in  its  very  nature  a  trust ;  and  as 
such  it  is  a  sacred  thing.  And  to  betray  a  trust  is 
the  worst,  because  the  meanest,  kind  of  stealing. 
For  example  :  There  is  the  misappropriation  or 
diversion  of  trust-funds  by  the  officers  of  corpora- 
tions, the 'managers  of  societies,  the  executors  of 
estates  and  bequests.  Again  :  There  is  the  embez- 
.  zlement  by  confidential  clerks ;  the  dishonest  entries 
or  omissions  in  ledgers;  the  fraudulent  returns 
made  by  agents;  the  deceiving  contracts  under 
mythical  names ;  the  civic  corruptions  by  bribes, 
emoluments,  sales  of  offices,  vendues  of  political^ 
opportunities ;  the  Congressional  substitution  of 
the  "  fiat "  silver  dollar,  worth  say  eighty  cents,  for 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMAKDMENT.  263 

the  standard  gold  dollar,  worth  one  hundred  cents; 
and  so  on  almost  endlessly.  Young  friends,  the 
ancient  race  of  Roman  publicans  is  not  yet  dead. 
The  extortionate  farmers  of  taxes  and  dishonest 
collectors  of  returns  are  still  in  the  land.  If  it 
should  please  God  to  grant  an  awakening  of  con- 
science among  the  office  holders  of  America,  public 
and  private,  how  many  Zaccheuses  would  have  to 
announce ;  "  Lord,  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted  Luke  xix,  8. 
aught  of  any  man,  I  restore  fourfold." 

And  now  let  me  pass  from  official  stealings  to  Corporate 
what  I  may  call  associated  or  corporate  stealings.  ^^  ^^^^ 
There  is  something  in  the  very  nature  of  the  organ- 
ization of  a  company  which  somehow  tends  to  the 
extinction  of  personal  responsibility.  It  is  well 
understood  that  many  a  man  will,  as  a  member  of 
a  corporation — no  matter  what  kind,  whether  a 
trust  company,  Kke  a  bank  or  a  charitable  institu- 
tion, or  an  executive  company,  like  a  railroad  or  a 
telegraph  organization — do  things  as  a  manager  of 
that  company  which  he  would  scorn  himself  for 
doing  as  a  private  individual  on  his  own  personal 
responsibility.  In  fact,  it  has  become  an  aphorism 
that  corporations  have  no  souls.  And  monopolies, 
or  corporations  granted  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
manufacturing  or  selling  certain  articles  of  com- 
merce:-—what  are  they  but  oftentimes  organized 
robberies  of  society,  thefts  of  your  purse  and  my 
purse  ?  Pardon  me,  young  gentlemen,  if  I,  a  man 
of  the  cloister  rather  than  gf  the  exchange,  shall 
not  be  able  in  what  I  am  about  to  say,  to  quote  the 
dialect  of  the  mart  or  the  pool-room  with  technical 


264  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

exactitude :  I  think,  however,  I  shall  be  able  to 
speak  with  sufficient  clearness  for  you  to  under- 
stand what  I  mean.  For  example :  There  is,  on 
the  one  hand,  the  practice  of  "  bearing  "  the  market — 
that  is,  lowering  the  value  of  stocks ;  and  there  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  practice  of  "  bulling "  the 
market — that  is,  raising  the  value  of  stocks  :  and  all 
this  through  the  deliberate  starting  and  spreading 
of  sensational  rumors :  for  aught  I  see,  tliis  is  theft 
organized  on  the  basis  of  fictitious  undeKvered 
stock,  which  was  never  meant  to  be  delivered :  in 
fact,  the  name  "  bear,"  as  applied  to  a  speculative 
jobber  on  the  Stock  Exchange,  is  said  to  be  de- 
rived from  the  story  of  the  man  who  sold  a  bear's 
skin  before  he  had  caught  the  bear.  Again :  There 
is  the  practice  of  "pooling" — that  is,  when  it  is  a 
conspiracy  organized  for  contributing  money  to  be 
used  either  for  a  gambling  operation  in  the  market, 
or  for  bearing  and  bulling  the  market  price  of 
"V  j  stocks,  with  a  view  to  the  settlement  of  differences. 
Again  :  There  is  the  practice  of  "  cornering  " — that 
Noah  Webster,  is,  the  Combining  of  persons,  "  who,  while  secretly 
holding  the  whole  or  the  greater  part  of  any  stock  or 
species  of  property,  induce  anotlier  combination  to 
agree  to  deliver  to  them  a  large  further  quantity  at 
some  future  time  :  when  the  time  arrives,  the  second 
combination,  if  the  corner  succeeds,  suddenly  finds 
itself  unable  to  buy  the  amount  of  the  stock  or 
property  necessary  to  enable  it  to  fulfill  its  contracts, 
and  the  first  combination  fixes  at  its  own  will  the 
price  at  which  differences  must  be  settled."  Would 
to  Heaven  that  this  second  combination  were  always 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMEiST.  265 

successful  in  delivering  the  promised  goods,  thus 
"  breaking  "  the  infamous  corner  !  Again  :  There 
is  the  practice  of  "  watering  " — that  is,  the  "  increas- 
ing in  apparent  bulk,  without  adding  to  the  real 
value '^;  as  when  a  company  increases  its  capital 
stock  by  issuing  new  stock,  pretending  that  accu- 
mulated or  anticipated  profits  warrant  such  increase. 
Some  companies  seem  to  have  invested  all  their  cap- 
ital in  the  constellation  Aquarius,  illustrating  the 
Wise  Man's  saw,  although  in  a  sense  which  he  did 
not  mean : 

He  that  watereth  shall  be  watered  also  himself.  Prov.  xi,  25. 

Once  more:  There  is  the  practice  of  "regrat- 
ing,"  or  '^  forestalling  the  market '' — that  is,  buy- 
ing goods  before  they  are  brought  to  the  stall, 
or  contracting  for  merchandise  or  provision  on  its 
way  to  the  market,  with  the  view  of  selling  it  again 
at  an  advanced  price,  thus  practically  monopolizing 
the  market.     Hearken  again  to  the  Wise  Man : 

He  that  withholdeth  corn,  the  people  shall  curse  him :  Prov.  xi,  26 

But  blessing  shall  be  upon  the  head  of  him  that  selleth  It. 

The  withholding  of  breadstuffs,  in  order  to 
raise  the  market,  is  in  some  respects  the  culmina- 
tion of  stealing.  A  profound  truth  underlies  the 
legend  of  Hatto,  the  avaricious  Archbishop  of 
Mainz,  who,  in  the  time  of  the  great  famine  of 
914,  compared  the  poor  to  rats,  and  shutting 
up  a  great  company  of  poor  people  in  his  vast 
barn,  burned  them  alive,  mocking  their  cries  of 
agony :  wherefore  God  made  him  reap  what  he  had 
sown,  sending  against  him  a  great  plague  of  mice 
23 


266 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Rubert  Southey. 


Dcgfradation 
of  the  Word 
<'  Trust." 


who  chased  him  continually  from  place  to  place, 
till,  fleeing  into  his  own  strong  tower  in  the  Khine 
near  Bingen,  they  invaded  him  in  his  retreat,  and 
miserably  devoured  him.  Robert  Southey  has  en- 
shrined the  legend  in  his  poem  entitled  *' God's 
Judgment  on  a  Bishop'' : 

Down  on  his  knees  the  Bishop  fell, 

And  faster  and  faster  his  beads  did  he  tell, 

As  louder  and  louder  drawing  near 

The  saw  of  their  teeth  without  he  could  hear. 

And  in  at  the  windows  and  in  at  the  door, 
And  through  the  walls  by  thousands  they  pour, 
And  down  from  the  ceiling  and  up  through  the  floor, 
From  the  right  and  the  left,  from  behind  and  before, 
From  within  and  without,  from  above  and  below, 
And  all  at  once  to  the  Bishop  they  go. 

They  have  whetted  their  teeth  against  the  stones, 
And  now  they  pick  the  Bishop's  bones  ; 
They  gnaw'd  the  flesh  from  every  limb  ; 
For  they  were  sent  to  do  judgment  on  him  I 

Before  leaving  this  part  of  my  topic,  let  me  be- 
wail the  degradation  of  the  word  "trust."  Once 
it  was  among  the  noblest  of  words,  akin  to  the 
word  "true,"  meaning  just  confidence,  assured  re- 
liance, unshaken  fidelity.  In  those  days  there 
could  be  no  richer  token  of  confidence  in  the 
moral  worth  of  a  corporation  or  institution  than 
to  make  it  the  custodian  and  manager  of  an  en- 
trustment,  whether  sacred  or  secular.  But  now 
this  word  "trust"  has  often  come  to  mean,  at  least 
practically,  the  very  reverse  of  what  it  once  meant 
— namely,  an  organized  betrayal  of  trust;  so  that 
there  is  even  talk  of  abolishing  trust-companies 
altogether.      Young  gentlemen,  there  can   be   no 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  267 

greater  literary  felony  than  the  debasing  a  noble 
word,  poisonously  tainting  its  moral  tissues,  slowly 
and  sacrilegiously  murdering  its  moral  personality. 

But  there  are  other  kinds  of  property  besides  Thefts  besides 
those  which  we  call  real  and  personal,  which  may  Property. 
also  be  stolen.  For  example ;  There  is  the  stealing 
of  time ;  and  time,  you  know,  or  will  know,  is  money. 
When  a  man  comes  and  takes  up  twice  the  time 
that  is  necessary  in  arranging  with  me  for  his  own 
advantage,  or  feven  the  advantage  of  a  good  insti- 
tution, he  steals  my  time,  and  in  stealing  my  time, 
he  steals  my  patience  as  well  as  my  money. 
Again :  There  is  the  petty  larceny  of  writing 
a  letter  of  inquiry  for  your  own  advantage,  and 
omitting  to  enclose  a  postage  stamp;  for  he  that  Lukexvi, lo. 
is  faithful  in  a  very  little  is  faithful  also  in 
much ;  and  he  that  is  unrighteous  in  a  very  little 
is  unrighteous  also  in  much.  Again :  There  is 
the  stealing  of  another's  time  and  opportunity 
and  serenity  when  you  keep  him  waiting  and 
fuming  through  your  own  failure  to  meet  your 
engagement  with  him  punctually.  Again:  There 
is  the  theft  of  plagiarism,  the  stealing  of  ideas, 
the  withholding  of  credit  or  praise  when  credit  or 
praise  is  due.  Again:  There  is  the  stealing  of 
reputation  or  character;  but  of  this  I  shall  speak 
in  my  next  lecture. 

Thus  endless  are  the  varieties  of  stealing. 

Let  me  now  revert  to  what  I  said  in  the  early  Removins: 
part  of  this  lecture  touching  divine  limitations, 
especially  in   the    matter  of  property.     You  will 
remember  that  this  great   principle  of  limitation 


268  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

was  signally  illustrated  in  Joshua's  apportionment 
of  the  land  of  Canaan,  allotting  to  each  family  its 
own  plat,  and  defining  each  lot  by  what  were 
called  "  landmarks.''  These  landmarks  often  con- 
sisted of  stones,  and  therefore  could  be  easily 
moved.  Hence  Jehovah's  stern  prohibition  wlieu 
Dent,  xxvii,  17.  Israel  stood  between  Gerizim  and  Ebal :  "  Cursed 
be  he  that  removeth  his  neighbour's  landmark. 
And  all  the  people  shall  say.  Amen."  Keeping 
in  mind  that  the  ancient  landmark  defined  the 
boundary  of  what  was  a  divine  allotment,  let  me 
apply  this  word  landmark  to  certain  fundamental 
human  rights  or  properties.  For  example  :  Every 
man  has  a  right  to  space — that  is,  the  space  he 
needs  to  live  in :  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks. 
Accordingly,  the  man  or  the  company  that  builds 
tenement  houses  without  providing  sufficient  spaces 
for  the  occupants  removes  a  neighbor's  landmark — 
that  is,  steals.  Asjain  :  everv  man  has  rio:ht  to 
health :  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks.  Accord- 
ingly, the  man  or  the  corporation  that  builds  fac- 
tories, without  providing  proper  sanitary  arrange- 
ments, removes  a  neighbor's  landmark — that  is, 
steals.  Again  :  every  man  has  right  to  time.  Not 
indeed  to  his  whole  time — for  he  is  a  member  of 
-  society,  and  therefore  owes  time  to  others — but  suf- 
ficient time  for  himself  for  rest,  for  study,  for  his 
family,  and  the  like :  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks. 
Accordingly,  the  man  or  the  syndicate  that  does  not 
take  this  into  account  removes  his  neighbor's  land- 
mark— that  is,  steals.  Again  :  every  man  has  right 
to  a  fair  chance  in  the  struggle  for  existence.     Not 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  269 

an  equal  chance  with  everybody  else ;  not  a  speci- 
ally bright  chance,  but  still  a  fair  chance:  this  is 
one  of  his  landmarks.  Accordingly,  the  man  or 
the  monopolist  who  puts  a  stumbling  block  in  the 
way  of  this  man's  fair  chance  removes  his  neigh- 
bor's landmark — that  is,  he  steals.  Again:  Every 
laborer  has  right  to  profits  of  labor:  not  merely 
to  wages,  but  also  to  profits :  this  is  one  of  his 
landmarks.  O  capitalist,  respect  your  neighbor's 
landmark:  do  not  steal!  Again:  Every  capitalist 
has  right  to  profits  of  capital :  this  is  one  of  his 
landmarks.  O  laborer,  respect  your  neighbor's 
landmark:  do  not  steal!  Again:  Every  man  has 
right  to  clear  judgment:  this  is  one  of  his  land- 
marks. Accordingly,  the  man  who  sells  him  intox- 
icants, stealing  away  his  clearness  of  mind,  removes 
his  neighbor's  landmark.  O  dramseller,  do  not 
steal !  Again :  Every  man  has  the  right  to  rest : 
physiologists  say,  every  night,  or  its  equivalent, 
and  one  day  in  every  seven:  this  is  one  of  his  land- 
marks. Accordingly,  the  man  or  the  syndicate 
that  denies  him  Sundav  removes  a  neighbor's  land- 
mark.  O  corporation,  do  not  steal !  Again : 
Everyman  has  right  to  worship :  this  is  one  of  his 
landmarks.  Accordingly,  the  man  or  the  church 
that  makes  salvation  costly  instead  of  free  removes 
a  neighbor's  landmark.  O  Christian,  do  not 
steal !  Again,  and  to  follow  the  second  table 
of  the  Decalogue :  Every  man  in  just  authority  has 
right  to  reverence :  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks. 
Accordingly,  the  child  who  is  unfilial,  or  the  citizen 
who  is  disloyal,  removes  a  neighbor's  landmark. 


270  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Again:  Every  man  has  right  to  life:  this  is 
one  of  his  landmarks.  Accordingly  the  man  who 
kills,  whether  s^^iftly  or  slowly,  removes  his  neigh- 
bor's landmark.  Again:  Every  man  has  right  to 
domestic  joys:  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks.  Ac- 
cordingly, he  who  commits  adultery,  whether  against 
the  statute  of  Moses  or  against  the  interpretation 
of  Jesus,  removes  his  neighbor's  landmark.  Again: 
Every  man  has  right  to  property  :  this  is  one  of  his 
landmarks.  Accordingly,  he  who  steals,  whether 
Lukexxi,2.  a  millionaire's  fortune  or  a  widow's  lepton,  removes 
his  neighbor's  landmark.  Again  :  Every  man  has 
right  to  fair  representation  of  his  acts,  motives, 
character :  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks.  Accord- 
ingly, he  who  bears  false  witness  against  him, 
whether  by  word  or  by  act,  removes  his  neighbor's 
landmark.  Again:  Every  man  has  right  to  cer- 
tain environment:  this  is  one  of  his  landmarks. 
Accordingly,  he  who  covets  his  neighbor's  house, 
or  his  wife,  or  his  manservant,  or  his  ox,  or  any- 
thing that  is  his,  removes  his  neighbor's  landmark. 
Once  more,  and  comprehensively  :  Every  man  has 
right  to  himself  (under  God) :  this  is  his  great 
landmark.  Accordingly,  the  man  or  the  corpora- 
tion that  takes  from  him  his  chance  for  personal 
'  accountability  removes  his  neighbor's  landmark. 
O  neighbor,  do  not  steal  !  God  furbid  that 
any  one  of  us  should  by  theft  of  any  kind, 
however  great  or  however  small,  incur  from 
Ebal  the  anathema : 

Dent,  xxvii,  17.        Cursed   be    he    that  removeth  his  neighbour's  landmark. 
And  let  all  the  people  say,  Amen  ! 


THE   EIGHTH    COMMANDMENT.  271 

God  grant  that  each  of  us  may  ever  share  in  the 
Doble  maxim  of  the  Father  of  his  Cpuutry  : 

I  hope  I  shall  always  possess  firmness  and  virtue  enough  to    Georcre  Wash- 
maintain,  what  I  consider  the  most  enviable  of  all  titles,  the       >"y^"- 
character  of  an  "  Honest  Man." 

So  shall  we,  with  a  greater  than  Washington,  not 
only  provide  things  honest  in  the  sight  of  all  men  :    Rom.  xu.  i:. 
we  shall  also  take  thought  for   things   honorable  in   2  cor.  viii,  21. 
the  sight  of  the  Lord. 

Let  me,  as  we  approach  our  conclusion,  present  Our  Com- 
for  a  moment  our  commandment  in   the  light   of      m  Lii^ht  oi 
the  New  Covenant.     Moses'  legislation   was  pro-      <^^rist. 
hibitive,  saying:  "Thou  shalt  not  steal!''     Jesus' 
legislation  is  affirmative,  saying:  "All  things  what-  Man.  vii,  12. 
soever  ye  would  that  men  should  do  unto  you,  even 
so  do  ye  also  unto  them."     Or,  as  his  great  apostle 
expresses  it:  "Owe  no  man  anything,  save  to  love  Rom. xm.s, 
one  another :  for  he  that  loveth  his  neighbour  hath 
fulfilled  the  law."     According  to  the  New  Cove- 
nant in  Christ  Jesus,  love  is  a  positive  debt.    Very 
interesting  and  instructive  is  the  etymological  his- 
tory of  this  word  "debt":    thus:  deheo,  dehitum, 
debit,  debiter,  debt,   devoir,  du,  due,  duty    (in  the 
sense  of  import  or  a  civic  must),  duty  (in  the  sense 
of  obligation  or  a  moral  ought).    So  also  the  words 
owe,  own,  owed,  ought,  etc.^     What  profound  mor- 

1  "The  English  defective  verb,  ought,  is  the  old  preterite  of 
the  verb  to  owe,  which  was  at  an  early  period  used  as  a  sort  of 
auxiliary  with  the  infinitive,  implying  the  sense  of  necessity, 
just  as  we,  and  many  of  the  Continental  nations,  now  employ 
Iiave  and  its  equivalents.  *  I  have  much  to  do,'  in  English  ; 
J'ai  beanconp  a  faire,  in  French  ;  Ich  hahe  viel  zu  thun,  in  Ger- 
man ;  all  mean,  substantially — '  There  is  much  which  I  must 


272  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

ality,  theu,  is  wrapped  up  in  the  history  of  these 
words,  owe,  owu,  ought,  due,  debt,  duty,  etc.!  Ah, 
these  words  of  ours,  wliat  witnesses  they  will  be 

Matt,  xii,  37.  for  US  OF  agaiust  us  in  the  day  of  Judgment :  for 
by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy 
words  thou  shalt  be  condemned.  But  to  return  to 
our  commandment  as  seen  in  the  light  of  Chris- 
tianity. The  Apostle  Paul  puts  the  negative  and 
the  positive  aspect  of  our  commandment  vividly 
thus  (and  remember  he  is  writing  to  a  Christian 

F.ph. iv, 28.  church):  "Let  him  that  stole  steal  no  more;  but 
rather  let  him  labour,  working  with  his  hands  the 
thing  that  is  good,  that  he  may  have  whereof  to 
give  to  him  that  hath  ueed.'^  That  is  to  say  :  Be 
not  content  with  negative  honesty ;  be  intent  on 
positive  charity.  For  the  Church  of  the  living 
God  is  the  true  Community,  the  genuine  Common- 
weal— that  is,  Common-wealth.  And  in  that 
good  time  coming,  when  the  loving  brotherhood  of 
Christian  altruism  shall  supplant  the  selfish  isola- 
tion of  sinful  egoism,  then  shall  men  enact  in 
tnitli    what    Lord    Macanlay   poetically   puts    in 

do.'  Afterward,  by  a  common  process  in  language,  the  gen- 
eral idea  of  necessity  involved  in  this  use  of  the  word  owe, 
resolved  itself  into  two  distinct  senses  :  the  one  of  pecuniary 
or  other  liability  in  the  nature  of  a  debt,  or  the  return  of  an 
'  equivalent  for  property,  services  or  favors  received ;  the  other 
that  of  moral  obligation,  or  at  least  of  expediency.  Different 
forms  from  the  same  root  were  now  appropriated  to  the  two 
senses,  to  owe,  with  a  newly-formed  weak  preterite,  owed,  being 
exclusively  limited  to  the  notion  of  debt ;  and  the  simple  form 
ought,  being  employed  in  all  moods,  tenses,  numbers,  and  per- 
sons, to  express  moral  obligation  or  expediency,  or  as  an  aux- 
iliary verb." — "  Lectures  on  the  English  Language,"  by  George 
P.  Marsh,  pages  320,  321. 


THE   EIGHTH   COMMANDMENT.  273 

the  mouth  of  Horatius  in  the  time  of  mythical 
Rome : 

Then  none  was  for  a  party  ;  "  Lays  of  An- 

Then  all  were  for  the  state  ;  ^i«"*  ^^'"^" 

Then  the  great  man  helped  the  poor, 

And  the  poor  man  loved  the  great : 
Then  lands  were  fairly  portioned  ; 

Then  spoils  were  fairly  sold  : 
The  Romans  were  like  brothers 

In  the  brave  days  of  old. 

Lastly:  Irreligion  is  the  typical  specimen  of  per-  irreiigion  the 
feet  theft.  For  while  man  in  relation  to  his  fel-  Theft.^ 
lowman  has  right  to  own  property  on  his  own 
account,  yet  man  in  his  relation  to  his  God  is  but  a 
trustee.  Steal  not,  then,  O  friend,  from  a  greater 
than  thy  neighbor, even  thy  divine  Master!  "Will  Mai.  111,8, 9. 
a  man  rob  God?"  expostulates  Jehovah  through 
his  prophet  Malachi :  "  Yet  ye  rob  me.  But  ye 
say,  Wherein  have  we  robbed  thee?  In  tithes  and 
offerinors.  Ye  are  cursed  with  the  curse:  for  ve 
have  robbed  me,  even  this  whole  nation."  Oh,  my 
countrymen,  no  longer  withhold  from  the  King 
of  kings  your  tithes,  and  offerings  of  gold,  and 
thanksgiving,  and  adoration,  and  confession,  and 
supplication,  and  aspiration.  While  you  render  Matt,  xxii,  21. 
unto  Caesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's,  beware 
lest  you  withhold  from  God  the  things  that  are 
God's.  Language  fails  you  when  you  undertake 
to  denounce  a  defaulter  against  man.  But  where 
is  your  language  when  you  think  of  a  defaulter 
against  Almighty  God  ?  Oh,  young  man,  if  we 
might  keep  up  the  old  legal  distinction  between 
petit  and   grand   larceny,  this  moral  deficit  in  our 


274  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

duty  to  God  is  an  awfully  conspicuous  sample  of 
grand  larceny.     God  forbid  that  any  of  us  should 
continue  guilty  of  this  dreadful  defalcation  ! 
Matt,  vi,  9,11.  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  Forgive  us  our 

debts,  as  we  also  have  forgiven  our  debtors! 

Collect.  O  Lord,  we  beseech  thee,  mercifully  hear  our  prayers,  and 

spare  all  those  who  confess  their  sins  unto  thee ;  that  they, 
whose  consciences  by  sin  are  accused,  by  thy  merciful  pardon 
may  be  absolved ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.    Amen. 


X. 

THE  NINTH  COMMANDMENT. 


Thou  Shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neigh- 
bour. 

Elxodus  2UC,  16. 


THE  NINTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Were  I  asked  what  I  thought  was  the  most  Wonderfui- 
wonderful  faculty  of  man,  I  would  answer:  The  Language/ 
faculty  of  language.  Just  consider  for  a  moment 
what  a  word  is.  A  word  consists  of  two  elements, 
which  not  only  have  nothing  in  common,  but  which 
are  even  diametrically  opposed.  Suppose  it  is  a 
spoken — that  is,  an  audible — word  ;  as  such  it  is 
but  a  sound,  an  aerial  vibration  striking  tympanum 
and  brain ;  or,  suppose  it  is  a  written — ^that  is,  a  visi- 
ble— word ;  as  such  it  is  but  a  certain  shape  on  a 
piece  of  paper.  Yet  in  either  case,  whether  an  audible 
word  or  a  written  word,  it  is  also  an  enshrined,  in- 
figured — so  to  speak — materialized  idea.  A  word 
is  a  symbolized  thought,  an  embodied  idea.  The 
same  material  air  that  wafts  a  leaf  may  enshrine 
and  waft  to  the  percipient  mind  an  immaterial 
idea.  Language  marries  thought  to  matter,  or 
rather  thought  to  thought,  in  the  sphere  of  matter. 
A  word  may  incarnate  the  vastest  conception,  as, 
for  example,  gravitation ;  or  it  may  incarnate  the 
subtilest  conception,  as,  for  example,  the  undulatory 
theory.  Again  :  Words  conserve  the  immaterial 
past,  turning  it  into  an  immortal  heirloom  ;  a  word 
carries  us  back  to  Washington,  to  Shakspeare,  to 
24  277 


278  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Mohammed,  to  Cicero,  to  Plato,  to  Abraham,  to 
Adam.  Words  are  the  Manes  of  past  centm-ies. 
Aye,  words  are  immortal. 

H.  W.  Long-  I  shot  an  arrow  into  air, 

fellow 

It  fell  to  earth,  I  knew  not  where  ; 

For,  so  swiftly  it  flew,  the  sight 

Could  not  follow  it  in  its  flight. 

I  breathed  a  song  into  the  air. 
It  fell  to  earth,  I  knew  not  where ; 
For  who  has  sight  so  keen  and  strong 
That  it  can  follow  the  flight  of  song  ? 

Long,  long  afterward,  in  an  oak, 
I  found  the  arrow  still  unbroke ; 
And  all  the  song,  from  beginning  to  end, 
I  found  again  in  the  heart  of  a  friend. 

You  think  that  the  phonograph  is  a  wonderful 
thing ;  and  so  it  is.  But  it  does  not  compare  in 
wonderfulness  with  the  most  careless,  insignificant 
word  which  it  echoes  and  preserves.  Even  the 
childish  prattle  of  the  nursery  is  more  wonderful 
than  the  most  surprising  transformation  in  chem- 
istry: for  it  turns  vibrations  of  material,  uncon- 
scious air  into  immaterial,  intelligible,  influenc- 
ing ideas.  Words  are  the  most  wonderful  of 
things. 
Sacredncss  of  But  language  is  not  only  wonderful,  language  is 
anguage.  ^j^^  sacred.  For,  as  I  indicated  in  my  lecture  on 
the  Third  Commandment,  God  has  bestowed  on  man 
the  gift  of  language  that  it  may  serve  as  the  means 
of  human  intercommunication  and  reciprocal  co- 
operation. It  is  by  means  of  words  that  men  can 
understand  and  enjoy  one  another,  and  can  co- 
operate in  carrying  on  and  building  up.  society. 


THE   NINTH   COMifANDMENT.  279 

Language  is  the  bridge  between  man  and  man ;  it 
is  the  circulating  medium  of  human  exchange — the 
exchange  of  human   thoughts,  sentiments,   plans. 
Language  is  the  blood  of  humanity,  flowing  through 
its   arteries   and  veins,  making  all  mankind  one 
human  corporation  or  body,  converting  numberless 
human  units  into  the  one  human  unity,  all  men  into 
one  Man.    Words  are  the  very  ligaments  of  human 
society ;  language  is  the  osseous,  vertebral  frame- 
work of  humanity  itself.    In  other  words,  language 
is  the  covenant  of  a  people.     If  I  may  say  it,  each 
language  is  the  sacramental  bond  of  the  nation 
speaking  it.     In  brief,  language  is  the  sacred  com- 
.  pact  of  humanity,  the  very  symbol  of  human  unity 
itself.     Hence  language,  in  order  to  its  being  true 
to  its  great  mission,  must  itself  be  true — that  is, 
trustworthy.     For  confidence  in  one  another  is  one 
of  the  basal  stones  of  society.     Accordingly,  false- 
hood is  one  of  the  blackest  of  sins,  for  it  is  a  crime 
directly  against  society  itself,  sapping  its  very  foun- 
dations.    St.  Paul   puts   the   case   forcibly   thus : 
^^  Putting  away  falsehood,  speak  ye  truth  each  one  Eph.  iv,  25. 
with  his  neighbour."     Why  ?     "  Because,"  he  im- 
mediately adds,  "  we  are  members  one  of  another." 
That  is  to  say,  membership  in  human  society  means 
a    common,    reciprocal,    interacting   life;    so   that 
falsehood  on  the  part  of  one  member  is  treachery 
against  the  whole  body.     To  utter  a  lie  is  even 
more  criminal,  morally  speaking,  than  to  forge  a 
note,  or  to  counterfeit  a  coin ;  for  the  note  and  the 
coin  you  can  catch  and  destroy:  but  the  lie  you 
can  never  overtake;  the  poison  of  it  is  already  ab- 


280  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

sorbed  into  the  very  structure'  of  the  social  organ- 
ism.^ Whatever  disaster  may  befall  our  beloved 
America,  God  spare  her  the  guilt  and  degradation  of 
untruthfulness,  national  and  personal !  The  God  of 
our  fathers  be  praised,  her  honor,  at  least  in  this  re- 
gard, has  hitherto  been  imstained.  America  has 
received  many  noble  eulogies  for  her  patriotism,  her 
entei-prise,  her  advance  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  her 
large  plans  for  national  education;  but  I  doubt 
whether  any  nobler  eulogy  was  ever  pronounced  on 
her  than  when  a  great  millionaire  recently  invested,  I 
know  not  how  much,  say  forty  or  fifty  millions,  in  gov- 
ernment four-per-cent.  bonds.  Not  that  he  intended 
this  as  a  eulogy;  nevertheless  it  was,  practically 
speaking,  a  significant  tribute  to  American  truthful- 
ness and  honor.  Young  gentlemen,  be  it  for  you,  as 
you  enter  upon  the  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  to 
bear  your  part  in  keeping  our  national  honor  un- 
sullied !  To  this  end,  do  the  truth  as  well  as  speak  it. 
The  N  i  n  t  h  ^^(j  ^q^  -^y^  ^re  prepared  for  the  Ninth  Com- 
ment.  mandmeut :     77iou    shalt    not    bear  false  witness 

against  thy  neighbour. 

In  pondering  the  Ninth  Commandment,  observe, 
first,  what  our  commandment  forbids. 

And,  first,  our  commandment  forbids  all  injurious 

* "  The  deadliest  poisons  are  those  for  which  no  test  is  known  ; 
there  are  poisons  so  destructive,  that  a  single  drop  insinuated 
into  the  veins  produces  death  in  three  seconds  ;  and  yet  no 
chemical  science  can  separate  that  virus  from  the  contaminated 
blood,  and  show  the  metallic  particles  of  poison  glittering 
palpably,  and  say,  *  Behold,  it  is  there  ! ' " — F.  W.  Robertson's 
"  Sermons,"  Third  Series,  page  49.  I  do  not  vouch  for  the 
scientific  accuracy  of  the  gifted  preacher's  statement ;  I  merely 
quote  il  for  the  sake  of  its  moral  suggestiveness. 


Exod.  XX,  16. 


THE   NINTH   COMMANDMENT.  S81 

perjury — this  lies  on  the  very  surface  of  the  phrase-  Ninth  Com- 
ology  :  "  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  Forblus^in- 
thy  neisrhbour."    This  Ninth  Commandment  differs      juriousPer- 

.  jury. 

from  the  Third  Commandment  in  this  respect :  that 
forbids  perjury  against  God ;  tliis  forbids  perjury 
against  man.  As  the  Fifth  Commandment — 
"  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother  " — guards  the 
rights  of  authority ;  and  as  the  Sixth  Command- 
ment— "Thou  shalt  do  no  murder" — guards  the 
rights  of  person ;  and  as  the  Seventh  Command- 
ment— "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery" — ^guards 
the  rights  of  home ;  and  as  the  Eighth  Command- 
ment— "  Thou  shalt  not  steal " — guards  the  rights 
of  property :  so  the  Ninth  Commandment — "  Thou 
shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbour" 
— guards  the  rights  of  name.  A  lie  is  bad  enough; 
but  perjury  is  worse :  for  it  adds  sacrilege  to  men- 
dacity, blasphemy  to  falsehood.  But  I  need  not 
dwell  on  this  point,  for  I  have  already  descanted 
upon  it  in  my  fourth  lecture. 

Again,  our  commandment  forbids  all  slander  of  Ninth  Crm- 

1     ,  1  •    J  i  1  •  •       J.1  i        mandnient 

whatever  kind ;  not  merely  perjury  m  the  court  Forbids 
room,  but  also  all  private  slander,  however  ex-  Slander, 
pressed.  For  example  :  It  forbids  all  false  reports 
of  whatever  kind  concerning  our  neighbors,  whether 
spoken,  or  written,  or  printed,  or  pictorial,  or  hinted. 
It  forbids  all  misrepresentation  of  our  neighbor  in 
any  wise,  whether  by  insinuation,  by  imputing  an 
evil  motive,  by  pervert'ng  his  meaning,  or  by  mis- 
quoting him  either  intent 'onally  or  carelessly.  It 
forbids  all  detraction  of  whatever  kind,  all  dispar- 
agement of  personal  character,  all  undervaluing  of 


282  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

our  neighbor's  good  deeds  or  good  name ;  for  this 
is  theft  indeed.  Even  lago,  cold-blooded  slanderer 
of  Desdemoua  though  he  was,  could  say  : 

"Othello"  111,3.        Good  name,  in  man  and  woman,  dear  my  lord, 
Is  the  immediate  jewel  of  their  souls  : 

Who  steals  my  purse,  steals  trash  ;  'tis  something,  nothing; 
'Twas  mine,  'tis  his,  and  has  been  slave  to  thousands  : 
But  he  that  filches  from  me  my  good  name 
Robs  me  of  that  which  not  enriches  him, 
And  makes  me  poor  indeed. 

Again :  Our  commandment  forbids  all  tale- 
bearing, and  tattling,  and  gossiping.  When  I 
think  of  those  multitudinous,  buzzing,  venomous, 
tiny  pests  of  society  whom  St.  Paul  describes  as 
1  Tim.  V,  13.  idlers,  and  tattlers,  and  busybodies,  going  about 
from  house  to  house,  speaking  things  which  they 
ought  not,  I  feel,  in  spite  of  my  scruples  touching 
capital  punishment,  that  old  Plautus  is  almost  right 
when  he  says : 

Plautus.  Those  men  who  carry  about,  and  those  who  listen  to  slanders, 

should,  if  I  could  have  my  way,  all  be  hanged  ;  the  tattlers  by 
their  tongues,  the  listeners  by  their  ears.^ 

Again :  Our  commandment  forbids  all  indul- 
gence in  that  irresponsible  but  all-permeating  cal- 
umnious rumor  of  mere  hearsay,  having  no  better 
basis  than  the  Latin  "DMwr,"  the  French  ^^On 
.  dit,''  the  German  ''Man  sagt/'  the  English  ''They 
say."  How  many  small  people  there  are  who  are 
never  so  happy  as  when,  mosquito  like,  they  can 
keep  flitting,  and  buzzing,  and  stinging,  especially 
in  the  night  time  when  the  sufferer  cannot  see  to 

1  Homines  qui  gestant,  quique  auscultant  crimina, 
Si  meo  arbitratu  liceat,  omnes  pendeant, 
Gestores  lingufs,  auditorps  auribus. 


THE   NIXTU    COMMAXDMEX'T.  283 

hit  and  crush  his  tiny  tormentor !  Again :  Our 
commandment  forbids  that  kind  of  slander  which 
the  old  honest  English  represents  by  the  expressive 
word  "  backbite '' — that  cowardly  slander  which 
dares  not  meet  the  object  of  its  calumny  face  to 
face,  but  stealthily  bites  him  in  the  back.  How 
quaint  the  great  Augustine's  distich,  which  he  sus- 
pended over  his  hospitable  table  ; 

Quisquis  amat  dictis  absentem  rodere  vitam  Augustine. 

Hanc  mensam  vetitam  noverit  esse  sibi : 

a  couplet  translated  by  old  Richard  Turnbull,  thus : 

He  that  doth  love  with  bitter  speech  the  absent  to  defame  Richard    Turn- 

Must  surely  know  that  at  this  board  no  place  is  for  the  same ;       ^"^ 

and  more  pithily  by  Dr.  Neale,  as  follows : 

He  that  is  wont  to  slander  absent  men  •^^hii  Mason 

Is  eale. 
May  never  at  this  table  sit  again. 

Again :  Our  commandment  forbids  all  that  kind 
of  initial  slander  which  is  covertly  conveyed  in 
such  expressions  as  these  :  ''Inter  nos ;  sub  rosa ; 
entre  no^is  ;  in  strict  confidence ;  I  wouldn't  for  the 
world  have  it  go  further/'  and  the  like :  expres- 
sions which  oftentimes  are  the  meanest  kind  of 
backbiting.  Again ;  Our  commandment  forbids 
all  .kinds  of  slander,  however  hinted;  for  words 
are  not  the  only  form  of  calumny.  For  example : 
There  are  the  pictorial  representations  in  our  comic 
journals.  Now,  I  do  not  object  to  a  caricature — 
indeed  I  greatly  enjoy  it — w^hen  it  is  a  good- 
natured  and  really  artistic  exaggeration  of  the  per- 
sonal appearance  or  habit  of  a  public  character: 
but  when  the  caricature  becomes  so  gross  that  its 


284  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

malignity  is  more  apparent  than  its  grotesqueness, 
then  the  cartoon  becomes  a  cruel  and  wicked  calum- 
niator. Slander  may  also  be  expressed,  and  power- 
fully too,  by  a  mere  gesture,  a  shrug,  a  wink,  a 

George  Eliot,  sigh,  an  iutonatiou.^  Aye,  "  there  are  glances  of 
hatred  that  stab  and  raise  no  cry  of  murder.'^^  Once 
more :  Slander  may  be  uttered  by  even  silence 
itself;  as  when  the  fair  fame  of  another  is  assailed 
in  your  presence,  and  you  do  not  spring  to  his 
defense.  Oh,  Protean  are  the  forms  of  bearing 
false  witness  against  our  neighbor ! 

Satau  the  And  Satan  himself  is  the  prince  of  slanderers. 
Slanderers.  The  vcry  meaning  of  the  Greek  Jid^oXot;,  reappear- 
ing in  English  as  "  devil,''  is  "  calumniator, '  false 
accuser,  slanderer."     When,  in   the   days   of  the 

jobi,G-ii.  patriarch  of  Uz,  Satan  presented  himself  among 
the  sons  of  God,  and  Jehovah  said  unto  him : 
"  Hast  thou  considered  my  servant  Job?  that  there 
is  none  like  him  in  the  earth,  a  perfect  and  an  up- 
right man,  one  that  feareth  God  and  escheweth 
evil  ? "  Satan,  the  traducer,  calumniously  insinu- 
ated in  reply :  "  Doth  Job  fear  God  for  nought  ? 
Hast  thou  not  made  an  hedge  about  him,  and  about 

1 A  signal  instance  of  the  effectiveness  of  a  mere  intonation 
occurs  in  a  famous  scene  in  "  Kenilworth."  Queen  Elizabeth, 
bidding  the  Earl  of  Sussex  and  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  rival 
suitors  for  her  affection,  and  therefore  mutually  hostile,  to  join 
hands  in  token  of  reconciliation,  said  :  *'  Sussex,  I  entreat — 
Leicester,  I  command  you."  But  Sir  Walter  immediately 
adds :  "  Yet,  so  were  her  words  accented,  that  the  entreaty 
sounded  like  a  command,  and  the  command  like  an  en- 
treaty."   Oh, 

"  The  shrug,  the  hum,  the  ha  (these  petty  brands 
That  calumny  doth  use)." 

—"  Winter's  Tale."  II,  1. 


THE    NINTH   COMMANDMENT.  285 

his  house,  and  about  all  tliat  he  hath,  on  every 
side  ?  thou  hast  blessed  the  work  of  his  hands,  and 
his  substance  is  increased  in  the  land.  But  put 
forth  thy  hand  now,  and  touch  all  that  he  hath, 
and  he  will  renounce  thee  to  thy  face."  And  as  it 
was  in  those  far-off  days,  so  it  has  been  to  this  day. 
Satan,  the  slanderer,  is  still  going  to  and  fro  in  the  Job.  ii,  2. 
earth,  and  roaming  up  and  down  over  it,  seeking  iPeterv.s. 
whom  he  may  devour.  God  be  praised,  he  shall 
not  be  permitted  to  do  this  forever.  The  saintly 
prisoner  of  Patmos,  beholding  in  apocalyptic  vis- 
ions the  things  to  come,  saw  Michael  and  his  angels  Rev.  xii,  7-ia 
prevailing  over  the  great  dragon  and  his  angels, 
even  the  old  serpent,  called  the  devil  and  Satan ; 
and  when  he  was  cast  down  the  exile  heard  a  great 
voice  in  heaven,  saying :  "  Now  is  come  the  salva- 
tion, and  the  power,  and  the  kingdom  of  our  Gcd 
and  the  authority  of  his  Christ :  for  the  accuser  of 
our  brethren  is  cast  down,  who  accuseth  them 
before  our  God  day  and  night."  Yes,  slander  is 
devilish. 

Again,  our  commandment  forbids,  at  least  by  Ninth  Com- 
implication,  all  falsehood,  of  whatever  kind,  p^',.  ^la^^ 
whether  slanderous  or  not.     For  example  :  Falsehood. 

It  forbids  the  lie  direct,  or  deliberate  falsehood. 
Of  course,  I  need  not  dwell  on  this  point.  Enough 
that  I  simply  mention  as  samples  of  direct  false- 
hood the  failure  to  keep  engagements,  to  fulfill  con- 
ditions of  agreement,  to  pay  promissory  notes, 
to  discharge  trusts,  to  observe  treaties,  and  the 
like.  While  Louis,  Duke  of  Burgundy,  was 
Dauphin   of    France,  he  was   present   at   an   im- 


286  THE  TEN  COMMANDMENT?. 

portant  cabinet  session,  in  course  of  which  one  of 
the  ministers  proposed  the  violation  of  a  certain 
treaty.  Many  apparently  strong  reasons  of  State 
were  urged  for  the  perfidious  policy.  The  Dau- 
phin listened  silently  till  they  had  closed  the  dis- 
cussion, and  then  simply  said  to  his  fellow-minis- 
ters :  "  Gentlemen,  there  is  our  treaty."  Of  course, 
this  settled  the  point.  Would  to  God  that  our 
own  Government  had  always  had  the  same  delicate 
sense  of  honor  in  the  matter  of  treaties,  as,  for 
instance,  in  the  case  of  our  outraged  Indians  !  No 
breach  of  promise  is  more  infamous  than  Punic  faith. 
Again,  our  commandment  forbids  the  lie  indi- 
rect, the  name  whereof  is  Legion.  It  forbids,  for 
example,  all  misrepresentation,  whether  by  ambig- 
uity, exaggeration,  false  coloring,  equivocation, 
innuendo,  flattery,  distortion,  prevarication,  mental 
reservation,  false  pretense,  quibbling,  suggestion  of 
falsehood,  suppression  of  truth ;  in  brief,  as  Mrs. 
Opie  would  say,  "  white  lies  " — that  is,  venial  false- 
hoods.    Remember  what  the  laureate  has  said  : 

rennyson's   That  a  lie  which  is  half  a  truth  is  ever  the  blackest  of  lies ; 
'  ^th  ^.'^'"*^"   That  a  lie  which  is  all  a  lie  may  be  met  and  fought  with  out- 
right, 
But  a  lie  which  is  part  a  truth  is  a  harder  matter  to  fight. 

Scorn,  then,  young  gentlemen,  all  jugglery  and 
ambushes  of  words.  Let  it  be  said  of  you,  only 
more  truly,  what  Julia  of  Verona  said  of  her  lover 
Proteus : 

"Two   Gentle-  His  words  are  bonds,  his  oaths  are  oracles  ; 

rona  "  II  7.  His  love  sincere,  his  thoughts  immaculate ; 

His  tears  pure  messengers,  sent  from  his  heart ; 
His  heart  as  far  from  fraud  as  heaven  from  earth. 


THE   NINTH   COMMANDMENT.  287 

But  while  the  Ninth  Commandment  is  prohibi- 
tive in  statement,  it  is  also  affirmative  in  meaning. 
Observe,  then,  now  what  our  commandment  by 
implication  enjoins. 

And,   first,   the    Ninth   Commandment  enjoins  Ninth  Com- 

.  .  _,  raandmeut 

bearing  true  witness  for  our  neighbor,  i^  or  exam-  Enjoins 
pie :  When  your  neighbor  makes  an  ambiguous  Te^s^imoiiy. 
statement,  capable  of  a  good  meaning  and  a  bad 
meaning,  choose  the  good  meaning.  Again :  Be  not 
chary  of  warmly  commmending.  Let  St.  Paul 
be  our  example  here.  Recall  the  introductions  of 
some  of  his  epistles,  even  in  the  case  of  churches 
he  had  occasion  to  censure  most  sternly : 

"  I  thank  my  God  through  Jesus  Christ  for  you  all,  that  Rom.  i,  8. 
your  faith  is  proclaimed  throughout  the  whole  world."  "I  1  Cor. i, 4-9. 
thank  my  God  always  concerning  you,  for  the  grace  of  God 
which  was  given  you  in  Christ  Jesus ;  that  in  everything  ye 
were  enriched  in  him,  in  all  utterance  and  all  knowledge; 
even  as  the  testimony  of  Christ  was  confirmed  in  you :  so  that 
ye  come  behind  in  no  gift ;  waiting  for  the  revelation  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ ;  who  shall  also  confirm  you  unto  the  end, 
that  ye  be  unreproveable  in  the  day  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
God  is  faithful,  through  whom  ye  were  called  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  "I  thank  my  God  Phil,  i, 3-6. 
upon  all  my  remembrance  of  you,  always  in  every  supplication 
of  mine  on  behalf  of  you  all  making  my  supplication  with  joy, 
for  your  fellowship  in  furtherance  of  the  gospel  from  the  first 
day  until  now  ;  being  confident  of  this  very  thing,  that  he  who 
began  a  good  work  in  you  will  perfect  it  until  the  day  of  Jesus 
Christ."  "  We  give  thanks  to  God  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Col.  i,  3-8. 
Jesus  Christ,  praying  always  for  you,  having  heard  of  your 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus,  and  of  the  love  which  ye  have  toward  all 
the  saints,  because  of  the  hope  which  is  laid  up  for  you  in  the 
heavens,  whereof  ye  heard  before  in  the  word  of  the  truth  of 
the  gospel,  which  is  come  unto  you ;  even  as  it  is  also  in  all 
the  world  bearing  fruit  and  increasing,  as  it  doth  in  you  also, 
since  the  day  ye  heard  and  knew  the  grace  of  God  in  truth ; 
even  as  ye  learned  of  Epaphras  our  beloved  fellow-servant, 


288  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

who  is  a  faithful  minister  of  Christ  on  our  behalf,  who  also 

1  Thess.  i,  2-8.       declared  unto  us  your  love  in  the  Spirit."    "  We  give  thanks 

to  God  always  for  you  all,  making  mention  of  you  in  our 
prayers ;  remembering  without  ceasing  your  work  of  faith  and 
labor  of  love  and  patience  of  hope  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
before  our  God  and  Father ;  knowing,  brethren  beloved  of 
God,  your  election,  how  that  our  gospel  came  not  unto  you  in 
word  only,  but  also  in  power,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  in 
much  assurance ;  even  as  ye  know  what  manner  of  men  we 
shewed  ourselves  toward  you  for  your  sake.  And  ye  became 
imitators  of  us,  and  of  the  Lord,  having  received  the  word  in 
much  affliction,  with  joy  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  so  that  ye  became 
an  ensample  to  all  that  believe  in  Macedonia  and  in  Achaia. 
For  from  you  hath  sounded  forth  the  word  of  the  Lord,  not 
only  in  Macedonia,  and  Achaia,  but  in  every  place  your  faith 
to  God-ward  is  gone  forth  ;  so  that  we  need  not  to  speak  any- 

2  Thess.  i,  3-5.       thing."    "  We  are  bound  to  give  thanks  to  God  alway  for  you, 

brethren,  even  as  it  is  meet,  for  that  your  faith  groweth 
exceedingly,  and  the  love  of  each  one  of  you  all  toward  one 
another  aboundeth  ;  so  that  we  ourselves  glory  in  you  in  the 
churches  of  God  for  your  patience  and  faith  in  all  your  perse- 
cutions, and  in  all  the  afflictions  which  ye  endure ;  which  is  a 
manifest  token  of  the  righteous  judgment  of  God  ;  to  the  end 
that  ye  may  be  counted  worthy  of  the  kingdom  of  God,  for 
Philemon  1-7.  which  ye  also  suffer."  "  I  thank  my  God  always,  making 
mention  of  thee  in  my  prayers,  hearing  of  thy  love,  and  of  the 
faith  which  thou  hast  toward  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  toward  all 
the  saints ;  that  the  fellowship  of  thy  faith  may  be  effectual, 
in  the  knowledge  of  every  good  thing  which  is  in  you,  unto 
Christ.  For  I  had  much  joy  and  comfort  in  thy  love,  because 
the  hearts  of  the  saints  have  been  refreshed  through  thee, 
brother." 


I  never  recall  the  unstinted  encomiums  by  my 
Lord  and  Master,  as,  for  instance,  when  he  says  of 
John  i,  17.  Nathanael :  "  Behold,  an  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom 

is  no  guile ! ''  without  feeling  that  I  ought  to  be 
on  the  watch  for  good  points  in  my  neighbor,  and 
be  swift  to  approve  them  warmly  to  his  face.  Be 
it  for  you  and  me,  then,  to  be  like  our  God,  who 


THE   NINTH    COMMANDMENT.  289 

giveth  to  all  liberally  and   upbraideth  not.     Let  James  1,5. 

your   speech   then,  young   gentlemen,   be   always  Coi.  iv.e. 
with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt — not  the  biting  salt 
of  Attic  wit — but  the  gracious  salt  of  Christian 

encomium,  giving  grace  to  them  that  hear.  Eph.  iv,  29. 

Again  :  Our  commandment  enjoins  truthfulness  Ninth  Com- 
alike of  speech,  and  of  behavior.  In  fact,  behavior  e  u  j  o  i  n  s 
was  the  meanins:  of  the  word   "conversation^'  at  Truthfui- 

»        ^  ^  ness  ot 

the  time  our  Authorized  Version  was  made.     For      Character, 
example :   St.   Paul,   writing   to  the  Corinthians, 
says:    "Our  glorying  is  this,  that  in  holiness  and  2Cor. i,  12. 
sincerity  of  God,  we  had  our  conversation  (behaved 
ourselves)  in  the  world.''     Again:  Writing  to  the 
Galatians,  he  says:  "Ye  have  heard  of  my  con-  Gai.i,  13. 
versation  (manner  of  life)  in  time  past  in  the  Jews' 
religion."      Again:  Writing  to  the  Philippiaus,  he 
says:  "Let  your  conversation  (manner  of  life)  be  phii.i, 27 
worthy   of    the   gospel   of    Christ.''     So   James  : 
"  Who  is  wise  and  understanding  among  you  ?  let  James  iii,  13. 
him  shew  out  of  a  good  conversation  (by  his  good 
life)    his   works   in    meekness   of    wisdom."     So 
Peter  :  "  As  he  who  called  you  is  holy,  be  ye  your-  1  peteri,  15. 
selves   also  holy   in   all    manner  of  conversation 
(living)."     Cultivate,   then,  O  young  man,  truth- 
fulness of  act  as  well  as  truthfulness  of  speech. 
For   nothing    is   more    beautiful    than   an   open, 
pellucid,  candid  character.     Do  you  not  remem- 
ber   the    origin    of    this    word    "  candid "  ?      It 
comes   from  the  Latin  candidus,  meaning  white, 
clear,  shining:  hence  the  word  candidatus — that  is, 
robed  in  white,  because  the  Roman  candidate  for 
office   was  wont  to  robe   himself  in   a   glittering 
25 


290  THE  TEN   C0MMAXDMEXT3. 

white  toga.  Alas,  in  our  own  office-seeking 
America,  how  many  are  "  candidates ''  only  in 
name,  not  having  the  white  character!  Again, 
recall  the  derivation  of  the  word  "  simplicity  "  :  it 
also  comes  from  the  Latin^  sine^  without,  and  plica, 
fold ;  simplicity  means  having  one  fold,  as  comes 
out  in  the  antithetic  word  *' duplicity,"  having  two 
folds ;  simplicity  is  single-mindedness,  straightfor- 
wardness.*  So  also,  sincerity  is  honesty  of  character. 

Matt.  T,  8.  purity  of  heart.      And    blessed  are   the  pure  in 

heart :  for  they  shall  see  God.     Not,  of  course,  in 

John  iv,  24.        any  physical  sense  :  for  God  is  a  Spirit,  whom  no 

1  Tim.  vi,  16.  i      ^  i  i  •  •    • ,        t 

man  hath  seen,  nor  can  see  :  but  in  a  spiritual  sense, 
in  the  dear  kinship  of  moral  affinity,  Alas !  at 
1  Cor.  xiii,  9-12.  present  we  see  him  only  in  part:  for  now  we  see 
him  in  a  mirror,  darkly,  (iv  abiyixart)  enigmatically, 
distortedly,  as  in  chromatic  aberration,  our  best 
perceptions  of  God  being 

"  km''^  XCI  '  "  -^"^  spiritual  presentiments, 

And  such  refraction  of  events 
As  often  rises  ere  they  rise. 

But,  then,  when  that  which  is  in  part  shall  be 
done  away  and  that  which  is  perfect  is  come,  we 
shall  see  God  face  to  face,  through  the  achromatic 
lens  of  a  heart  absolutely  pure.  Then  shall  be  the 
Beatific  Vision  indeed.  Cultivate,  then,  O  young 
friend,  simplicity  of  purpose,  candor  of  character, 
truthfulness  of  life.     May  you  and  I  be  so  true  to 

*In  like  manner,  at  least  according  to  some  etymologists, 
the  word  "  sincerity  "  is  a  Latin  compound,  composed  of  sine, 
without,  and  cem,  wax,  all  the  wax  having  been  eliminated 
from  the  honey  :  **  sincerity  "  is  purity  of  heart. 


of  La  n- 
guage. 


THE   NINTH   COMMANDMENT.  291 

ourselves  that  the  Lord  of  all  vision  shall  also  say 

of  you  and  me,  as  he  said  of  Nathanael,  "Behold,  John i, 47. 

au  Israelite  indeed,  in  whom  is  no  guile!'' 

And  now  let  me  revert  to  the  early  part  of  my  Awful  Power 
lecture,  and  say  a  few  words  about  the  awful  gran- 
deur  of   the   gift  of   language.     Its   tremendous 
power  is  simply  inconceivable. 

On  the  one  hand,  language  is  an  incalculable 
power  for  good ;  for  it  is  not  only  the  instrument 
of  thought,  reacting  on  the  mind  of  him  who 
speaks  and  writes,  giving  to  his  thoughts  solidity, 
order,  clearness,  energy — it  is  also  the  grand  instru- 
ment of  human  edification — that  is,  society  building. 
The  best  comment  on  this  point  is  the  fourteenth 
chapter  of  St.  Paul's  First  Epistle  to  the  Corinth- 
ians. Language  is  the  grand  architect  of  mankind. 
Listen  to  some  proverbs  : 

The  mouth  of  the  righteous  is  a  fountain  of  life ;  Prov.  x,  11. 

A  wholesome  tongue  is  a  tree  of  life ;  Prov,  xv,  4. 

Pleasant  words  are  as  an  honeycomb,  Prov.  xvi,  21. 
Sweet  to  the  soul,  and  health  to  the  bones  ; 

A  word  fitly  spoken  ProT.  xxv,  11. 
Is  like  apples  of  gold  in  baskets  of  silver. 

Each  true  word  is,  so  to  speak,  another  Nehemiah, 
of  the  true  Jerusalem,  adding  another  stone  in  the 
rebuilding  of  the  temple  of  humanity.  May  the 
Lord  Jehovah  give  each  of  us  the  tongue  of  them  isa.  1, 4. 
that  are  taught,  so  that,  like  Jehovah's  own  Ser- 
vant, we  may  know  how  to  sustain  with  words  him 
that  is  weary,  and  so  help  to  upbuild  society.* 

lOld  Edward  Elton,  commenting  on  St.  Paul's  saying — 
*'  Let  your  speech  be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt, 


292  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

But  alas  !  this  same  gift  of  speech,  which  is  such 
an  incalculable  power  for  good,  is  also  an  incal- 
culable power  for  bad.  As  each  good  word  is  a 
noble  Nehemiah,  inserting  a  goodly  stone  in  the 
growing  temple  of  mankind,  so  each  bad  word  is 
a  heathen  Sanballat,  dislodging  a  stone  from  the 
sacred  temple.     Listen,  then,  to  another  proverb  : 

Prov.  xxvi,  18,  As  a  madman  who  casteth  firebrands, 

Arrows,  and  death  ; 

So  is  the  man  that  deceiveth  his  neighbour, 
And  saith,  Am  not  I  in  sport  ? 

that  ye  may  know  how  ye  ought  to  answer  each  one  " — 
(Col.  4 :  6)  quaintly  says  :  "  Wouldest  thou  then  be  able  to 
speak  fitly,  and  to  good  purpose,  on  every  occasion,  as  in  one 
particular  case,  in  time  of  distress,  in  time  of  trouble  and 
vexation  of  body  or  mind  ;  wouldest  thou  be  able  to  speak  a 
word  of  comfort,  and,  as  the  Prophet  saith  (Isa.  50 :  4)  know 
how  to  minister  a  word  in  time  to  him  that  is  weary  ?  Oh, 
then,  let  thy  tongue  be  ever  powdered  with  the  salt  of  grace, 
have  in  thy  mouth  at  all  other  times  gracious  speeches,  and 
certainly  then  thou  shalt  not  be  to  seek  of  sweet  and  com- 
fortable words  in  time  of  need.  Many  come  to  their  friends, 
whom  they  love  well,  and  wish  well  unto,  in  time  of  their 
trouble,  haply  lying  on  their  sick  beds,  and  are  not  able  to 
afibrd  them  one  word  of  spiritual  comfort ;  only  they  can  use 
a  common  form  of  speech,  ask  them  how  they  do,  and  say  they 
are  sorry  to  see  them  so,  and  then  they  have  done.  Here  is  one 
special  cause  of  it :  their  mouths  are  not  seasoned  with  gra- 
cious speeches  at  other  times ;  they  use  not  to  season  their 
speech  with  grace  at  other  times,  and  so  it  comes  to  pass  that 
when  they  should,  and  (it  may  be)  would  use  gracious  and 
■  comfortable  words,  they  cannot  frame  themselves  to  them  ; 
but  even  then,  also,  they  are  out  of  season  with  them.  Learn 
thou,  therefore,  to  acquaint  thyself  with  holy  and  religious 
speeches,  let  thy  mouth  at  other  times  be  exercised  in  speaking 
graciously,  and  then  (doubtless)  though  thou  canst  not  speak 
so  eloquently,  as  some  that  foam  out  nothing  but  goodly 
speeches,  yet  thou  shalt  be  able  to  speak  to  better  purpose, 
because  (indeed)  it  is  not  man's  wit,  but  God's  grace,  that 
seasons  speech,  and  makes  it  profitable  and  comfortable.'' 


THE   NIIS^TH    COMMANI):^IE^•T. 


293 


But  the  most  burning  description  of  the  terrific 
power  of  the  tongue  is  given  us  by  the  Apostle 
James : 

If  any  stumbleth  not  in  word,  the  same  is  a  perfect  man,  James  iii,  2-8. 
able  to  bridle  the  -whole  body  also.  Now  if  we  put  the  horses' 
bridles  into  their  mouths,  that  they  may  obey  us,  we  turn 
about  their  whole  body  also.  Behold,  the  ships  also,  though 
they  are  so  great,  and  are  driven  by  rough  winds,  are  yet 
turned  about  by  a  very  small  rudder,  whither  the  impulse  of 
the  steersman  willeth.  So  the  tongue  also  is  a  little  member, 
and  boasteth  great  things.  Behold,  how  much  wood  (how 
great  a  forest)  is  kindled  by  how  small  a  fire !  And  the  tongue 
is  a  fire :  the  world  of  iniquity  among  our  members  is  the 
tongue,  which  defileth  the  whole  body,  and  setteth  on  fire  the 
wheel  of  nature,  and  is  set  on  fire  by  hell.  For  every  kind  of 
beasts  and  birds,  of  creeping  things  and  things  in  the  sea,  is 
tamed,  and  hath  been  tamed  by  mankind  :  but  the  tongue  can 
no  man  tame ;  it  is  a  restless  evil,  full  of  deadly  poison. 

Aye,  slander  is  the  most  epidemic  and  fatal  of 
pestilences.  A  breath  of  scandal  sweeps  through 
the  community  and  the  nation  like  a  sirocco. 
Thus  faithful  Pisanio  to  noble  Imogen: 


What  shall  I  need  to  draw  my  sword  ?  the  paper 
Hath  cut  her  throat  already. — No ;  'tis  slander. 
Whose  edge  is  sharper  than  the  sword  ;  whose  tongue 
Outvenoms  all  the  worms  of  Nile  ;  whose  breath 
Rides  on  the  posting  winds,  and  doth  belie 
All  corners  of  the  world  :  kings,  queens,  and  states. 
Maids,  matrons,  nay,  the  secrets  of  the  grave 
This  viperous  slander  enters.^ 

Oh,  what  untold  misery  and  anguish  the  tongue 
has    brought   into   the    world :    for    example,    the 


"  Cymbeline,' 
111,  4. 


'How  powerful  Virgil's  portrayal  of  the  swift  momentum 
of  pestilential  Rumor's  flight : 

"  Fama,  malum  qua  non  aliud  velocins  ullum ; 
Mobilitate  viget,  viresque  acquirit  eundo,"  et  seq. 

— •'  ^.neid,"  IV,  173-197. 


294  THE   TEX    COMMANDMENTS. 

tongue  of  the  talebearer,  taking  up  a  reproach 
against  his  neighbor,  and  giving  it  wings;  the 
tongue  of  the  slanderer,  blasting  a  fair  name,  and 
crushing  glorious  powers;  the  tongue  of  the  scan- 
dal-monger, filling  a  continent  with  pestilential 
stench  ;  the  tongue  of  the  insinuator,  undermining 
success,  and  murdering  an  illustrious  reno^'u;  the 
tongue  of  the  gossiper,  carrying  into  a  household 
tears  and  anguish  and  death.  Verily,  the  tongue 
is  an  untameable  mischief,  full  of  deadly  poison,  a 
world  of  iniquity,  itself  set  on  fire  by  hell. 

Such  is  the  awful  grandeur  of  the  gift  of  speech. 
Words  make  earth  a  heaven  or  a  hell.     I  hardly 

Mark  Yii,  31-^.  marvcl  that  when  the  wonder-working  Nazarene 
touched  the  tongue  of  the  deaf  stammerer  of 
Decapolis,  and  loosed  its  bond,  he  sighed. 

Responsi-  And  here  let  me  say  a  few  words  about  the 
Journal-  responsibility  of  journalism.  Were  1  asked  what 
^^"^-  I   thought  is  the   most  influential   factor    in    our 

American  life,  I  would  unhesitatingly  answer  the 
newspaper-press.  You  may  say  that  the  mother 
is  more  influential :  but  the  mother  dies.  You 
may  say  that  the  school  is  more  influential :  but 
the  school,  even  so  great  a  school  as  a  university, 
is  only  for  our  younger  days.  You  may  say  that 
the  church  is  more  influential :  but,  alas !  tlie 
church,  practically  speaking,  reaches  only  a  part 
of  the  community.  But  the  newspaper  is  ubiqui- 
tous and  perennial.  Young  gentlemen,  I  love  my 
calling.  I  honestly  believe  that  the  ministerial 
vocation  is  a  divine  appointment,  and  that,  so  long 
as  the  prieseut  economy  lasts,  it  is  absolutely  indis- 


THE   NINTH    COMMANDMENT.  295 

pensable  to  the  welfare  of  society.  Nevertheless, 
I  must  admit,  aud  I  cheerfully  do  admit,  that 
there  is  a  preacher  who  exercises  a  vaster  iufluence 
than  the  preacher  in  the  pulpit;  it  is  the  preacher 
in  the  press-room.  For  the  journal  comes  to  its 
readers  not  only  as  a  news-teller;  it  also  comes  as 
an  Oracle.  For  the  moment  one  sees  a  statement 
in  a  paper,  it  somehow  takes  on  a  dignity  and 
importance  which  it  might  never  have  possessed 
had  he  only  heard  it  from  the  lips.  The  very  fact 
that  it  is  anonymous  gives  it  a  sort  of  shadowy 
majesty.  How  many  vast  indefinables  may  be 
lying  implicit  and  potential  in  that  little  anony- 
mous editorial  pronoun  '^  we  !  '^  Omne  ignotwn  pro 
magnijico  est.  And  yet  why,  allow  me  to  ask  in 
passing,  should  we  pay  such  grave  attention  to  an 
anonymous  statement  in  a  newspaper,  when  that 
same  newspaper  gravely  announces  that  it  will  pay 
no  attention  whatever  to  any  anonymous  contribu- 
tor? I  think  that  a  great  moral  gain  would  be 
secured  were  every  writer  of  any  statement  con- 
cerning any  individual  or  institution  compelled  to 
assume  the  responsibility  for  his  statement  by  pre- 
fixing or  suffixing  his  own  legal  signature.  I  see 
no  reason  why  a  newspaper  should  be  granted  an 
immunity  denied  to  a  gentleman.  But  let  me 
revert  to  the  point  in  hand — the  tremendous  power 
of  journalism.  It  not  only  reflects  public  senti- 
ment :  it  also  largely  shapes  it.  It  makes  a  man 
or  it  unmakes  him  by  the  motives  which  it  assigns 
to  him.  It  often  outlines  the  plans  of  individuals, 
the  methods  of  institutions,  the  policies  of  corpora- 


296  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

tious,  even  the  polity  of  a  nation.  Edmund  Burke 
once  said  :  "There  are  three  Estates  in  Parliament: 
but,  in  the  Reporters'  Gallery  yonder,  there  sits  a 
Fourth  Estate  more  important  than  the  other 
three  ! "  What  Augustus  was  to  Rome,  or  Peter 
to  Russia,  or  Napoleon  to  France,  that  the  News- 
paper is  to  America ;  it  is  America's  dictator. 
Tlie  Journal  is  Columbia's  natural  Ceusor :  I  wish 
it  were  always  as  just  as  was  Cato  of  Rome. 

Thank  God,  many  are  the  editors  who  are  true 
to  their  great  vocation.  They  are  brave  to  denounce 
wrong-doing  in  conspicuous  places ;  swift  to  recog- 
nize merit  in  public  life;  cliivalric  to  defend  the  op- 
pressed and  to  set  right  the  misunderstood;  strong 
to  cheer  those  who  are  burdened  with  great  respon- 
sibilities; wise  to  guide  the  perplexed;  skillful  to 
build  up  society — in  brief,  like  the  Apostle  Paul, 
exercising  the  authority  whicli  the  Lord  hath  given 
them  for  building  up  and  not  for  casting  down. 
Alas!  I  cannot  say  this  for  all  editors.  Gentlemen 
of  the  Press,  the  warmth  of  my  tribute  to  you 
justifies  me  in  speaking  plainly.  Allow  me,  then, 
to  say  that  there  is  too  much  of  catering  to  morbid 
tastes;  too  much  intrusion  into  the  privacy  of 
home  life;  too  much  indulgence  in  personalities; 
too  much  publication  of  mere  rumors;  too  much 
detailed  accounts  of  crimes  and  brutalities  and 
scandals:  in  brief,  too  much  news  that  is  not  news, 
or  which,  if  it  were  news,  had  better  never  have 
become  news.  "Ah,"  you  tell  me,  "the  people 
demand  this  kind  of  reading."  Alas  !  what  you  say 
is  too  true.     But,  gentlemen  journalists,  it  is  your 


THE    ^'I^'TH    COMMANDMENT.  297 

glorious  vocation  to  lead  the  people,  not  to  follow 
them;  to  lift  them  up,  not  to  kneel  to  them.  If 
jou  must  have  a  scandal  column,  label  it  at  the 
top  with  the  caution :  "  Beware  of  deadly  poisonJ'  ^ 

Observe  now  that  words  are  in  an  eminent  sense  Words  Re- 
revealers  of  character.  acter. 

Not  that  it  is  always  so.  Words  sometimes 
misrepresent  character.  Thus  the  Psalmist,  awak- 
ing to  the  treachery  of  the  friend   he  had  trusted. 

exclaims : 

His  mouth  was  smooth  as  butter,  Ps.  Iv,  21. 

But  his  heart  was  war  : 

His  words  were  softer  than  oil, 

Yet  they  were  drawn  swords.^ 

And,  in  fact,  the  hypocrite  will  be  condemned 
on  this  very  ground :  his  words  did  not  reveal  his 
character — they  were  lies  :  therefore  his  very  words 
will  condemn  him.  Neither  are  we  to  imagine 
that  there  is  no  disclosure  of  character  except 
through  words.     There  is  such  a  thing  as  unspoken 

1  Benjamin  Harris,  the  pioneer  journalist  of  America,  in  issu- 
ing the  prospectus  of  his  "  Publick  Occurrences  both  Foreign 
and  Domestick,"  published  September  25,  1690,  quaintly  an- 
nounces what  he  conceives  to  be  the  duties  of  an  editor. 
Among  these  duties  he  mentions  the  following  : 

"  Thirdly,  That  some  thing  may  be  done  towards  the  Curing, 
or  at  least  the  Charming  of  that  Spirit  of  Lying,  which  pre- 
vails among  us,  wherefore  nothing  shall  be  entered,  but  what 
we  have  reason  to  believe  is  true,  repairing  to  the  best  foun- 
tains for  our  Information.  And  when  there  appears  any 
material  mistake  in  anything  that  is  collected,  it  shall  be  cor- 
rected in  the  next." 

What  a  blessing  it  would  be  were  every  modern  editor  as 
conscientious  as  old  Benjamin  Harris  1 

•  Compare  Hamlet's  soliloquy  : 

I  will  speak  daggers  to  her,  but  use  none. 

— "  Hamlet,"  III,  2. 


a'tetus. 


298  THE   TEN   (X)MMANDMEXTS. 

speech.  There  is  such  a  thing  as  inaudible  solilo- 
quy and  even  dialogue  of  soul.  Thus  Plato,  in 
one  of  his  Dialogues,  represents  Socrates  as  saying 
to  Theaetetus : 

Plato's  ''The-  I  speak  of  what  I  scarcely  know ;  but  the  soul  when  think- 
ing appears  to  me  to  be  just  talking — asking  questions  of  her- 
self and  answering  them,  affirming  and  denying.  And  when 
she  has  arrived  at  a  decision,  either  gradually  or  by  a  sudden 
impulse,  and  has  at  last  agreed,  and  does  not  doubt,  this  is 
called  her  opinion.  I  say,  then,  that  to  form  an  opinion  is  to 
speak,  and  opinion  is  a  word  spoken,  I  mean,  to  one's  self  and 
in  silence,  not  aloud  or  to  another. — "  The  Dialogues  of  Plato," 
translated  by  Professor  Benjamin  Jowett. 

And  Socrates  is  right.  The  souFs  speech  is  not 
necessarily  articulate  speech,  but  what  she  says  to 
herself.  And  what  she  says  to  herself,  she  ex- 
presses not  only  in  words,  but  also  in  acts.  And 
so  even  the  very  dumb  speak.  The  whole  conduct 
is  a  ceaseless  discourse,  life  itself  is  an  unbroken 
oration.  The  Jews  have  a  saying,  that  "God  is 
better  pleased  with  adverbs  than  with  nouns:  for 
nouns  are  but  the  names  of  things,  whereas  adverbs 
describe  how  things  are  done."  Young  gentlemen, 
be  it  ours  to  serve  God  adverbially. 

But  while  it  is  true  that  words  sometimes  mis- 
represent character,  and  that  character  may  be 
revealed  in  other  ways  than  by  words,  it  still  re- 
mains true  that  words  are  the  chief  revealers  of 
character.  For  character  is  a  secret  spring,  hidden 
in  recesses  of  the  heart,  the  waters  of  which  become 
visible  as  they  flow  forth  in  rills  of  words  and 
Matt,  xii,  34, 35.  bi'ooks  of  phrascs  and  rivers  of  sentences.  "  Out  of 
the  abundance  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaketh. 


THE   NINTH   COMMAJN'DMENT.  299 

The  good  man  out  of  bis  good  treasure  bringeth 
forth  good  things;  and  the  evil  man  out  of  his  evil 
treasure,  bringeth  forth  evil  things.''  Speech  is  the 
exhalation  of  the  heart.  Thus  words  are  represen- 
tatives of  character,  translating  character  into  lan- 
guage which  he  who  runs  may  read.  In  fact,  this 
very  word  "  character  "  etymologically  means  what 
is  marked,  engraved,  lettered.  Thus  Orlando  in  his 
apostrophe  to  his  sweetheart  in  the  Forest  of  Arden  : 

O  Rosalind  I  these  trees  shall  be  my  books,  .  "  As  You  Like 

It "  111   2 
And  in  their  barks  my  thoughts  I'll  character ;  .        »   • 

That  every  eye,  which  in  this  forest  looks, 

Shall  see  thy  virtue  witnessed  everywhere. 

A  man's  character  is  the   inscription   which  his 

habits  have  engraved  on  him.     And   his  words 

translate  this  inscription.     His  words  characterize 

him — that  is,  they  give  his  characteristics ;  and  this 

is  but  another  way  of  saying  that  his  words  reveal 

his  character.     And  so  it  is  that  our  speech  be-  Matt,  xxvi,  73. 

wrayeth  us. 

And  therefore  our  words  will  be  our  judges  on  Our  Words 
the  last  great  day.     Listen  to  the  Supreme  Judge  ^  g  s 

himself;   "By  tliy' words  thou  shalt  be  justified,  Matt. xii.s? 
and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt  be  condemned."     Let 
us  anticipate  for  a  moment  that  great  final  Assize. 
What,  then,  is  the  character  of  your  words,  the 
tenor  of  your  speech  ? 

Are  you  strictly  a  truthful   man?    Do  your  By   Words 
words  always  and  exactly  represent  your  opinions,      J^^stified. 
your  purposes,  your  feelings  ?    Do  you  avoid  all 
prevarication,   false   suggestion,   double   meaning, 
verbal  ambushes?     Are  you  in  the  habit  of  speak- 


300  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

iug  kindly  to  others,  encouraging  them  by  words 
of  warm  sympathy  and  cheery  commendation? 
Are  you  in  the  habit  of  speaking  kindly  of  others? 
Do  you  speak  generously  of  those  whose  reputation 
is  under  a  cloud,  magnanimously  of  those  who 
have  injured  you?  In  short,  does  your  conversa- 
tion tend  to  edification — that  is,  society-building? 
If  in  reply  to  these  and  similar  questions  you  can 
answer,  Yes,  blessed  are  you :  for  by  these  words 
of  yours  you  will  be  justified. 
By  Words  Or,  do  you  ever  and  anon  indulge  in  loose  and 
random  talk?  Do  you  ever  speak  equivocally, 
misleadingly,  taking  advantage  of  double  entench-e? 
Do  you  ever  intend  that  your  words  shall  misrep- 
resent your  purposes,  your  views,  your  feelings? 
Do  you  ever  speak  unkindly  to  others  ?  Do  you 
ever  indulge  at  home  in  morose,  or  surly,  or  peev- 
ish, or  passionate  expressions  ?  Do  you  ever  speak 
unkindly  of  others?  Do  you  ever  allow  yourself 
to  fall  into  the  critical  mood,  speaking  disparag- 
ingly of  others,  pointing  out  their  faults,  making 
them  the  butt  of  your  ridicule,  and  sarcasm,  and 
wit?  When  a  fair  and  honored  name  is  clouded, 
do  you  ever  join  in  the  popular  hue  and  cry — 
^'Guilty!  Guilty!''?  Do  you  ever  indulge  in 
innuendoes,  or  ambiguous  hints,  or  allow  to  pass 
unchallenged  surmises  about  your  classmates,  or 
your  rivals,  or  those  who  have  injured  you?  Do 
you  ever 

Pope's  " Pro-  Damn  with  faint  praise,  assent  with  civil  leer, 

ire"/'    ^     '^  '  -^^^  without  sneering  teach  the  rest  to  sneer ; 

Willing  to  wound,  and  yet  afraid  to  strike, 
Just  hint  a  fault,  and  hesitate  dislike  ? 


THE   NINTH   COMMANDMENT.  301 

Do  you  ever  listen  to  a  tale  of  slander  or  vagabond 
hint  of  gossip,  and,  without  stopping  to  inquire 
into  its  truth,  thoughtlessly  repeat  it?  In  short, 
does  your  conversation  lack  in  edification — that  is, 
society-building?  If  in  reply  to  these  and  similar 
questions  you  must  answer,  Yes,  wretched  are  you  : 
for  by  these  words  of  yours  you  will  be  con- 
demned. 

Finally  :  Jesus  Christ  himself  is  the  true,  eternal  Christ  the 
language.     He  himself  is  the  Word  of  God.     In      guage. 
the  beginning  was  the  Word,  and  the  Word  was    ^'^°'  ^' 
with  God,  and  the  Word  was  God.     The  Divine 
Man  is  Deity's  eternal  alphabet,  from  eternity  to  Rev.  xxu,  13. 
eternity   God's   Alpha,  from  eternity  to  eternity 
God's  Omega.     And  just  because  he  was  and  is 
and  ever  will  be  the  Word  of  God — that  is,  God  in 
expression,  in  articulation,  in   manifestation — the 
express  image  of  his  substance,  the  very  impress  of  Heb.i,  s. 
his  person,  God's  very  /a^azny>,  he  was  and  is  and 
ever  will  be  the  Truth :  and  therefore  by  his  own 
words  and   works  the  world  and  the  universe  is 
year  by  year,  century  by  century,  aeon  by   aeon, 
justifying  him — the  Word  of  God — more  and  more. 
And  so  it  comes  to  pass  that  a  Christian  life  or 
the  life  of  Christ  is  also  man's  true  language.    Oh, 
young  friend,  let  your  words  be  like  Christ's,  and 
you  too  shall  be  justified.     What  though  you  have 
not  graduated  from  the  school  of  earth's  oratory  ? 
Enough  in  this  regard  that  you  speak  the  language 
of  Christ's  character :   for  in  thus  speaking  you 
speak  correctly,  according  to  the  eternal  grammar; 
aye,  even  eloquently,  according  to  the  eternal  rhet- 
26 


302 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Matt,  xxvi,  73; 
Mark  xiv,  70. 


Collect. 


oric.  Heaven  grant  that  when  you  and  I  shall 
stand  in  the  judgment-hall  of  a  greater  than  Pilate, 
some  friend  of  the  Judge  shall  say  to  each  one  of 
us: 

"  Thou  also  art  a  Galilean :  for  thy  speech 
bewrayeth  thee." 

Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  who  art  always  more  ready 
to  hear  than  we  to  pray,  and  art  wont  to  give  more  than  either 
we  desire  or  deserve ;  Pour  down  upon  us  the  abundance  of 
thy  mercy ;  forgiving  us  those  things  whereof  our  conscience 
is  afraid,  and  giving  us  those  good  things  which  we  are  not 
worthy  to  ask,  but  through  the  merits  and  mediation  of  Jesus 
Christ,  thy  Son,  our  Lord.    Amen, 


XL 

THE  TENTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Thou  Shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  house,  thou  shalt 
not  covet  thy  neighbour's  wife,  nor  his  manservant,  nor 
his  maidservant,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor  anything 
that  is  thy  neighbour's. 

Exodus  XX,  17. 


XL 
THE  TENTH  COMMANDMENT. 

Thou  shall  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  house,  thou  The  Tentii 

shall  not  covet  thy  neighbour's  wife,  nor  his  manser-  nient. 

vanl,  noi'  his  maidservant,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  ^^^^^^  ^^'  ^^• 
nor  anything  thai  is  thy  neighbour's. 

How  charniinoc  the  naivete  of  this  ancient  plirase-  Naivete  of  the 

Phrase- 

ology !  How  refreshingly  it  carries  us  back  to  the  oiogy. 
simplicity  of  the  patriarchal  life!  Instead  of  the 
modern  complicated  inventories  of  deeds  and  deben- 
tures and  mortgages  and  stocks  and  bonds  and  notes 
and  cheques  and  bills  of  exchange  and  securities  of 
ever  so  many  kinds,  there  was  the  patriarchal  and 
simple  inventory  of  house  and  servant  and  ox  and 
ass.  Yet  those  were  real  though  humble  types  of 
our  modern  elaborately  constructed  properties.  For 
example :  What  is  the  modern  manufactory,  turn- 
ing out  hundreds  of  locomotives  a  year,  or  the 
modern  steamship  transporting  thousands  of  tons 
from  New  York  to  Liverpool,  hut  the  ancient  ox 
power  or  ass  power,  raised  to  the  nth  degree?  And 
yet  notwithstanding  all  the  multiplied  forms  of  the 
modern  wealth  and  comforts — notwithstanding  all 
our  budgets  and  ledgers  and  vaults,  our  manufac- 
tories and  city  halls  and  drawing-room  cars  and 
private  palaces^ — I  doubt  whether  we  are  any  hap- 
pier than  were  those  far-oif  patriarchs,  who  dwelt 

305 


/ 


306  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

in  Lents  and  led  their  flocks  through  green  pastures 

and  beside  still  waters.     In   all  events,  I  suspect 

that  we  need  the  Tenth  Commandment  quite  as 

much  as  they  needed  it. 

Our    Cora-       In   pondering,  then,  this  last  of  the  Ten  Com- 

noes  NOT   mandments,  observe,  first  of  all,   what  our  com- 

Forbid  Ac-  mandment  does  not  forbid  :  It  does  not  forbid  the 

c  u  m  u  J  a  - 

tion.  accumulation  of  property.     For,  as  we  saw  in  our 

study  of  the  Eighth  Commandment,  the  right  to 
ownership  is  a  human  right,  inherent  in  man 
because  he  is  what  he  is — namely,  man.  Do  not 
imagine,  then,  that  the  impulse  to  accumulate  is  one 
of  the  results  of  Adam's  fall.  On  the  other  hand, 
this  impulse  is  so  universal  and  strong  that  I  think, 
we  ought  to  regard  it  as  one  of  the  innate,  constitu- 
tional, essential  elements  of  man  as  man.  In  other- 
words,  this  instinct  of  acquisition  is  less  a  sign  of. 
Adam's  sinful  fall  than  it  is  a  sign  of  Adam's- 
divine  oriii^in.  For  man  beino;  characteristicallv  a 
creature  of  the  future,  he  instinctively  forecasts — 
that  is  to  say,  man  is  instinctively  pro-vident.  And 
the  higher  a  man  is  in  the  scale  of  civilization,  the 
more  pro-vident  or  provident  he  is.  It  is  the 
savage  man  who  lives  or  rather  exists  from  day  to 
day  without  plan,  without  toil,  without  accumula- 
tion :  it  is  the  civilized  man  who  lives  from  year 
to  year,  forecasting  the  future,  making  plans,  sub- 
ordinating everything  he  can  control  to  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  distinctly  conceived,  and,  it  may  be, 
distant  end  :  and  that  end,  generally  speaking,  is 
the  providing  against  a  day  of  want.  Thus  sur- 
veyed, the  impulse  to  accumulate,  I  honestly  believe, 


mus. 


THE    TENTH    COMMAIfDMENT.  307 

is  one  of  the  sacred,  divinely-implanted  instincts 
of  our  moral  nature  ;  being  as  much  a  divine  gift 
,as  the  gift  of  reason,  or  love,  or  conscience;  and 
therefore  to  be  sacredly  used. 

Accordingly,  I  hold  it  to  be  the  duty  of  every  Accumuia- 
human  being  to  acquire  all  he  can :  provided  al- 
ways he  acquires  it  honestly,  and  consistently  with 
his  other  duties,  and  disposes  of  what  he  acquires 
as  God  commands  him.  I  have  no  sympathy,  then, 
with  that  class  of  saints  who  profess  to  have  soared 
so  high 

Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot  Milton's    "  Co 

Which  men  call  earth 

that  they  feel  constrained  to  look  down  with  pity 
and  disdain  on  money-getting,  beyond  what  suffices 
for  the  bare  necessaries  of  life,  as  a  sin.  I  always 
distrust  the  saintliness  of  such  professors,  just  as  I 
distrust  the  humility  of  the  church  member  who 
never  tires  of  parading  before  others  his  own 
unworthiness,  forgetting  that  true  humility  shrinks 
from  attracting  the  gaze  of  men,  and,  like  the 
timid  bird  of  the  forest,  warbles  its  plaint  before 
none  save  the  Father  who  sees  in  secret.  No ;  our 
Creator  has  endowed  us  with  an  ardent,  ineradi- 
cable desire  to  accumulate.  And  we  disobey  alike 
our  own  moral  natures  and  our  Father's  will  when 
we  refuse  to  give  play  to  this  divinely-implanted 
impulse,  or  strive  to  crush  it  out  as  though  it  were 
sinful.  And  it  is  right  to  allow  this  instinct  of 
accumulation  to  take  the  direction  of  property  or 
pecuniary  gain  :  provided  ajways,  we  do  this,  not 


308  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

for  the  sake  of  the  gain  itself,  but  for  the  sake  of 
what  the  gain  may  accomplish  for  the  glory  of 
God  in  the  service  of  man.  For  the  true  worth 
of  money  consists  not  in  its  being  an  end,  but  in 
its  being  a  means.  In  fact,  the  way  in  which  a 
man  disposes  of  the  money  he  makes,  supplies  one 
of  the  most  delicate,  decisive  tests  of  his  moral 
character.  Remember  that  the  Church  of  Jesus. 
Christ  is  the  earthly  agency  which  God  has  ap- 
pointed for  the  restoration  of  mankind  to  himself. 
And  he  has  appointed  money,  not  less  than  prayer 
and  example,  as  one  of  the  means  which  the  Church 
in  her  turn  is  to  use  in  fulfilling  her  august  mission. 
Luke xix, 29-34.  Recall  the  story  of  the  triumphal  entry:  Jesus 
bade  two  of  his  disciples  go  loose  a  certain  colt  and 
bring  it  to  him,  adding:  ^' If  any  one  ask  you, 
Why  do  ye  loose  him?  answer,  The  Lord  hath 
need  of  him.'^  Yes,  young  friends,  there  is  a 
sense  in  which  it  is  still  true  that  our  Lord  needs 
our  property.  He  needs  our  property  in  the  same 
sense  that  he  needs  ourselves — namely,  as  his  agents 
to  accomplish  his  own  gracious  will.  Instead,  then, 
of  wishing^  to  see  the  dav  when  an  embaro-o  shall 
be  laid  on  our  ships  of  commerce,  and  the  doors  of 
our  warehouses  shall  be  closed,  and  all  the  various 
spheres  of  secular  industry  shall  be  vacated,  because 
men  shall  have  lost  all  desire  to  accumulate,  I  be- 
lieve that  the  true  Golden  Age  will  have  come  when 
an  intense  business  activity  shall  prevail  through- 
out the  world ;  when  the  white  sails  of  commerce 
shall  swell  before  the  breezes  of  every  zone ;  when 
the  marts  of  the  world  shall   be  multiplied,  and 


THE   TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  309 

crowded  with  the  products  of  every  clime  and  of 
every  kind  of  human  skill,  and  thronged  with 
eager  tradesmen  of  every  race;  when  mines  of 
mineral  wealth,  yet  undiscovered,  shall  disclose 
their  precious  treasures,  and  not  a  foot  of  soil  siiall 
be  left  unreclaimed  from  the  wild  sway  of  nature ; 
when  the  whole  globe  shall  become  one  vast 
emporium,  wherein  all  the  peoples  shall  be  busy  in 
holy  competition  and  sanctified  enthusiasm :  and 
all  this,  in  order  that  every  human  being  may 
gratefully  oiFer  on  the  altar  of  Messiah's  service 
all  that  a  kind  Providence  has  helped  him  to  amass. 
Yes,  young  gentlemen,  it  is  right  to  acquire  prop- 
erty :  for  property  is  one  of  the  essential  factors  in 
setting  up  Immanuel's  kingdom. 

What,  then,  does  the  Tenth  Commandment  Our  Com- 
forbid?  It  forbids  accumulation  at  the  expense  Fo^rbTds 
of  others.     The  especially  emphatic  word  in  our      Selfish   Ac 

^  "^  ^  cumula- 

commandment  is  the  word  "  neighbour's.''  Our  tiou. 
commandment  does  not  say :  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet 
a  house,  or  an  ox,  or  an  ass,  or  anything."  But 
what  our  commandment  says  is  this  :  ^'  Thou  shalt 
not  covet  thy  neighbour's  ox,  thy  neighbour's  ass, 
thy  neighbour's  anything."  For  your  neighbor 
has  the  same  right  to  property  that  you  yourself 
have.  In  other  words,  each  man  has  a  co-equal 
right  with  every  other  man  to  gain  property ;  but 
no  man  has  the  right  to  gain  property  in  such  a 
way  as  to  entail  loss  on  any  other  man.  In  still 
other  words,  rightful  accumulation  does  not  consist 
so  much  in  the  profitable  acquisition,  however 
honestly  made,  of  property  already  existing,  as  in 


310  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

the  absolute  production  of  property  or  creation  of 
wealth.  Significant  is  the  verb  ^'make"  in  such 
expressions  as  "  make  money,"  "  make  profits/' 
*'  make  a  fortune,"  and  the  like.  Lawful  accumu- 
lation consists  in  lawfully  making  money  rather 
than  in  simply  getting  money,  however  lawfully. 
And  the  remark  is  equally  true  of  the  laborer  and 
the  capitalist.  For  work — that  kind  of  genuine, 
solid  work  which  actually  produces,  or,  to  use  the 
Gen.  i,  28.  Scriptural  phrase,  which  subdues  the  earth — is  the 

primary  foundation,  the  substratal  basis  of  prop- 
erty. Adam  Smith,  the  father  of  modern  political 
economy,  discussing  in  his  great  treatise  the  prices 
of  commodities,  declares  as  follows : 

Siaith's"Wealth  The  value  of  any  commodity  to  the  person  who  possesses  it, 
o^  a  ions,  ,  ^^^  ^j^^  means  not  to  use  or  consume  it  himself,  but  to  ex- 
change it  for  other  commodities,  is  equal  to  the  quantity  of 
labor  which  it  enables  him  to  purchase  or  command.  Labor, 
therefore,  is  the  real  measure  of  the  exchangeable  value  of  all 
commodities.  The  real  price  of  everything,  what  everything 
really  costs  to  the  man  who  wants  to  acquire  it,  is  the  toil  and 
trouble  of  acquiring  it.  What  everything  is  really  worth  to 
the  man  who  has  acquired  it,  and  who  wants  to  dispose  of  it, 
or  exchange  it  for  something  else,  is  the  toil  and  trouble  which 
it  can  save  to  himself,  and  which  it  can  impose  upon  other  peo- 
ple. What  is  bought  with  money,  or  with  goods,  is  purchased 
by  labor,  as  much  as  what  we  acquire  by  the  toil  of  our  own 
body.  That  money,  or  those  goods,  indeed,  save  us  this  toil. 
They  contain  the  value  of  a  certain  quantity  of  labor,  which 
we  exchange  for  what  is  supposed  at  the  time  to  contain  the 
value  of  an  equal  quantity.  Labor  was  the  first  price,  the 
original  purchase-money  that  was  paid  for  all  things.  It  was 
not  by  gold  or  by  silver,  but  by  labor,  that  all  the  wealth  of 
the  world  was  originally  purchased  ;  and  its  value,  to  those 
who  possess  it,  and  who  want  to  exchange  it  for  some  new  pro- 
ductions, is  precisely  equal  to  the  quantity  of  labor  which  it 
can  enable  them  to  purchase  or  command. 


THE   TENTH   COMMANDMENT.  311 

That  is  to  say :  Work — work  that  is  work,  re- 
sulting in  positive  production  of  material  rather 
than  in  mere  maintenance  of  monetary  equilibrium 
— is  the  basis  of  just  profits  or  rightful  accumula- 
tion. Or,  to  translate  my  idea  into  the  language 
of  moral  arithmetic:  Righteous  acquisition  does 
not  consist  in  the  subtraction  of  aught  from  our 
neighbor's  property,  whether  capital  or  labor — for 
this  is  coveting.  But  righteous  acquisition  consists 
in  the  positive  addition  to  the  world's  general  capi- 
tal— for  this  is  loving  our  neighbors  as  ourselves. 
Personal  multiplication  of  material  in  order  to 
universal  division  of  profits — this,  it  seems  to  me, 
is  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  political 
economy,  as  it  certainly  is  a  splendid  illustration 
of  the  Golden  Rule.  But  to  return  to  our 
commandment:  What  it  forbids  is  not  accumula- 
tion, but  unrighteous  accumulation,  or  acquisition 
at  another's  cost. 

And  now  let  us  proceed  to  examine  briefly  the  Specifications 

_        .  «     ,       rr.        ,     AN  ^  of    Tenth 

specifications  of  the  Tenth  Commandment.  Command- 

And,  first,  "Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neigh- 
bour's house."  That  is  (if  we  may  venture  to  put 
into  the  mouth  of  Sinai's  ancient  jurist  such  modern 
legal  distinctions),  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neigh- 
bor's real  estate,  whether  houses,  tenements,  lauds, 
hereditaments,  freehold  interests  in  landed  prop- 
erty, or  what  not.* 

1  Let  me  allude  in  passing  to  the  question  recently  raised 
touching  the  right  to  personal  property  in  land.  Of  course, 
there  is  no  question  about  the  right  to  property  in  public  lands : 
the  legislation  concerning,  for  example,  homestead  laws,  the 


mcnt. 


312  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Secondly :  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's 
ox,  nor  his  ass  " — that  is,  thou  shalt  not  covet  thy 
neighbor's  personal  estate  or  property,  his  mova- 
bles, his  chattels,  whatever  belongs  to  him  that  is 
not  of  the  nature  of  freehold  property,  or  property 
descendable  to  heirs. 

national  park,  railways,  streets,  etc.,  proceeds  on  the  basis  of 
what  is  styled  "  right  of  eminent  domain."  But  the  question 
is  about  the  right  of  individuals  to  own  private  land.  A 
favorite  modern  theory  is  this:  "Land,  like  air  or  light  or 
water,  is  the  common  heritage  of  mankind :  you  have  the  right 
to  the  fruit  of  your  tillage,  but  not  to  the  soil  itself;  that 
belongs  to  the  State ;  personal  ownership  in  land  is  public 
robbery."  The  theory  is  in  some  respects  plausible,  and  has 
been,  as  you  know,  recently  defended  with  earnestness,  and 
even  ability.  Let  me  mention  two  grave  difficulties.  The 
first  is  a  difficulty  of  premiss  or  analogy :  you  cannot 
improve  air  or  light  or  water,  except  in  the  subordinate 
and  incidental  sense  of  removing  impurities ;  you  cannot 
improve  them  as  natural  elements  and  qualities ;  but  you 
can  improve  soil,  for  instance,  by  readjusting  its  components, 
by  fertilizing  additions,  by  rotation  of  crops,  etc.  The  other 
difficulty  is  a  difficulty  of  Scripture  :  The  territorial  appor- 
tionment of  Canaan  under  Joshua,  the  curse  pronounced  on 
the  removal  of  landmarks,  the  reversion  of  ancestral  estates  in 
the  year  of  jubilee,  the  right  of  Ruth  to  recover  her  patrimo- 
nial lands,  the  refusal  of  Naboth  to  alienate  his  hereditary 
vineyard,  the  patriotic  purchase  of  the  field  of  Anathoth  by 
Jeremiah,  the  generous  sale  of  his  field  by  Joseph  sur named 
Barnabas,  the  sacrilege  of  Ananias  and  Sapphira  in  pretending 
to  have  laid  at  the  apostles'  feet  all  the  proceeds  of  the  land 
they  had  sold — all  these  and  similar  Scriptures  proceed  on  the 
principle  that  it  is  right  for  private  individuals  to  own  land. 
Indeed,  the  first  recorded  instance  in  Scripture  of  the  sale  of 
property  was  Abraham's  purchase  of  the  field  of  Machpelah  for 
a  burial  lot  for  his  family.  (Gen.  23.)  If  I  have  right  to  own 
land  to  bury  in,  much  more  have  I  right  to  own  land  to  live 
on.  In  brief,  if  it  is  wrong  for  a  private  person  to  own  land, 
then  Joseph  of  Arimathea  had  no  right  to  the  garden  in  which 
he  buried  his  divine  Friend. 


THE   TENTH    COMMAXDMEXT.  313 

Thirdly :  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's 
manservant,  nor  his  maidservant" — that  is,  thou 
shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  skilled  labor,  his 
accomplished  craftsman  or  clerk  or  drummer,  his 
mechanical  instruments,  his  commercial  appliances. 

Fourthly :  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbour's 
wife" — that  is,  thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neigh- 
bor's domestic  joys,  his  household  peace,  his  home 
life.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  covetousness  and  adul- 
tery, greed  and  lust,  do  according  to  the  Bible 
often  go  together :  "  Ye  know  of  a  surety,  that  no  Eph.  v,  3-6. 
fornicator,  nor  unclean  person,  nor  covetous  man, 
who  is  an  idolater,  hath  any  inheritance  in  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  and  God." 

Fifthly :  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet  anything  that  is 
thy  neighbour's" — that  is,  thou  shalt  not  covet 
anything  whatsoever  that  belongs  to  thy  neighbor, 
whether  property,  or  luxury,  or  comfort,  or  office, 
or  rank,  or  honor,  or  what  not.  In  brief:  Thou 
shalt  not  covet  anything  that  is  thy  neighbor's. 

And  now  observe  the  intense  radicalism  of  the  Kadicaii.smof 
Tenth  Commandment.     The  other  commandments      mandmeut. 
are,  so  to  speak,  outward,  moving  in  the  sphere  of 
conduct,   or  visible  behavior :  this  commandment 
is  inward,  moving  in  the  sphere  of  character,  or 
invisible  life.  The  other  commandments  take  us  into       H— 
man's  court,  or  the  forum  of  human  vision :  this  com- 
mandment takes  us  into  God's  court,  or  the  forum  of 
Divine  Omniscience.    One  may  keep  the  other  nine 
commandments :  but  who  has  ever  kept,  or  ever  can 
keep  this  Tenth  Commandment?  And  yet  the  Apos- 
tle James  tells  us  :  "  Whosoever  shall  keep  the  whole  James  u,  lo. 
27 


314  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

law,  and  yet  stumble  in  one  point,  he  is  become 
guilty  of  all."  In  fact,  our  commandment  interprets 
the  other  nine,  translating  them  from  the  visible 
forum  of  demeanor  into  the  invisible  forum  of 
character.  Polytheism,  idolatry,  falsehood,  sabbath 
breaking,  disobedience,  murder,  adultery,  theft, 
slander — all  of  these  are  born  from  within.  Ijis- 
Matt.  XV,  19;  tcu  to  the  Lord  of  all  vision  :    From  within,  out 

!Mark  vii,  21,  r»       i  m        i  i 

2^.  of  the   heart  of  men,  come  forth   evil   thoughts, 

murders,  adulteries,  thefts,  false  witness,  covetings. 
Here  is  the  practical  solution  of  the  problem  of  the 
"origin  of  evil.''  Do  not  ascribe  too  much  to 
Satan.  Wicked  as  he  is,  he  has  a  co-adjutor  in 
ourselves.  Listen  to  St.  James'  awful  pedigree  of 
sin: 

Jaiues  i,  13-15.  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God  : 

for  God  cannot  be  tempted  with  evil,  and  he  himself  tempteth 
no  man  :  but  each  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  by 
his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  Then  the  lust,  when  it  hath  con- 
ceived, beareth  sin  :  and  the  sin,  when  it  is  fullgrown,  bringeth 
forth  death. 

Surveying  the  Tenth  Commandment  in  this  light, 
we  may  well  exclaim  with  the  Psalmist : 

Ps.  c.\ix,93.  I  have  seen  an  end  of  all  perfection  ; 

Thy  commandment  is  exceeding  broad. 

Or,  as  the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews 
graphically  expresses  it : 

Heb.  iv.  12, 13.  The  word  of  God  is  living,  and  active,  and  sharper  than  any 

two-edged  sword,  and  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of  soul 
and  spirit,  of  both  joints  and  marrow,  and  quick  to  discern 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  And  there  is  no  crea- 
ture that  is  not  manifest  in  his  sight :  but  all  things  are  naked 
and  laid  open  before  the  eyes  of  him  with  whom  we  have 
to  do. 


THE   TEXTH    COMMAXDMENT.  315 

Observe  also  the  disclosing,  convicting  power  of 
this  Tenth  Commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  not  covet/' 
Recall  St.  Paul's  language  concerning  the  awaken- 
ing function  of  the  law  : 

I  had  not  known  sin  except  through  the  law  :  for  I  had  not  Rom.  vii  7-9. 
known  coveting,  except  the  law  had  said,  Thou  shalt  not  covet: 
but  sin,  finding  occasion,  wrought  in  me  through  the  com- 
mandment all  manner  of  coveting  :  for  apart  from  the  law  sin 
is  dead.  And  I  was  alive  apart  from  the  law  once  :  but  when 
the  commandment  came,  sin  revived,  and  I  died. 

That  is  to  say  :  This  commandment,  "  Thou  shalt 
not  covet,"  arouses  conscience,  laying  bare  the  secret 
springs  of  a  covetous  nature.     Through  the  law  Rom.  111,29. 
comes  the  knowledge  of  sin,  the  sense  of  guilt,  the 
consciousness  of  the  desert  of  punishment.     And 
so  the  very  law  itself,  so  to  speak,  necessitates  a 
gospel.     Thank  God,  the  law  has  become  our  tutor  oai.  m,  n. 
to  bring  us  unto  Christ,  our  pedagogue  to  take  each 
of  us  by  the  hand,  and  lead  us  from  the  bm-ning 
mountain  that  could  be  touched  to  that  better  spir-  Heb.  xii,  i8--24. 
itual  mountain,  whereon  sits  enthroned  the  Mediator 
of  the  New  Covenant. 

And  now  let  me  say  some  words  about  the  perils  Perils  of  Cov 
of  covetousness.  They  are  many  and  grave.  I  can 
hardly  do  more  than  simply  mention  some  of  them. 
For  example :  Coveting  tempts  us  into  the  viola- 
tion of  the  First  Commandment,  or  polytheism, 
worshiping  Mammon  in  addition  to  Jehovah. 
Happy  the  man  who  can  exclaim  with  the  venerable 
emir  of  Uz : 

If  I  have  made  gold  my  hope,  Job  xxxi,  24-28 

And  have  said  to  the  fine  gold.  My  confidence  1 
If  I  rejoiced  because  ray  wealth  was  great, 


316  THE   TEN   COMMANDMEXTS. 

And  because  my  hand  had  gotten  much  : 

This  also  were  a  crime  to  be  punished  by  the  judges  : 

For  I  should  have  denied  God  that  is  above. 

Again :  Coveting  tempts  us  into  a  violation  of 
the  Second  Commandment,  or  idolatry.  Ah  !  we 
need  not  go  to  heathendom  in  order  to  find  wor- 
shipers of  images;  we  shall  find  plenty  of  idolaters 
of  gold  and  silver,  of  bonds  and  realty,  in  our  own 
counting-rooms  and  workshops — aye,  by  our  own 
hearthstones,  enshrined  there  as  our  Lares  and 
Penates.  In  fact,  the  Apostle  Paul  expressly  iden- 
Eph  T  5.  tifies  the  covetous  man  and  the  idolater  :  "  Covet- 

CoL  111,5. 

ousnass,  the  which  is  idolatry.^'  Again :  Coveting 
tempts  us  into  violation  of  the  Third  Command- 

2  Kings  T,  20-27.  mcut,  or  sacrilcgious  falsehood :  for  instance,  Gehazi, 
lying  in  the  matter  of  his  interview  with  Naaman 

Acts  T,  1-10.  the  Syrian,  and  Ananias  and  Sapphira,  perjuring 
themselves  in  the  matter  of  the  community  of  goods. 
Again :  Coveting  tempts  us  into  violation  of  the 
Fourth  Commandment,  or  Sabbath-breaking ;  it  is 
covetousness  which  encroaches  on  God's  appointed 
day  of  sacred  rest,  tempting  us  to  run  trains  for 
merely  secular  purposes,  to  vend  tobacco  and 
liquors,  to  hawk  newspapers.  Again :  Coveting 
tempts  us  into  violation  of  the  Fifth  Command- 
ment, or  disrespect  for  authority ;  tempting  the 
young  man  to  deride  his  early  parental  counsels, 
the  citizen  to  trample  on  civic  enactments.  Again  : 
Covetousness  tempts  us  into  violation  of  the  Sixth 

>?att.  XX vi,  14-  Commandment,  or  murder ;  recall  how  Judas'  love 
of  money  lured  him  into  the  sacrilegious  betrayal 
of  his  Divine  Friend  into  the  hands  of  his  murder- 


THE    TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  317 

ers,  his  lure  beiDg  the  paltry  sum  of — say — fifteen 
dollars.  Again  :  Covetousness  tempts  us  into  viola- 
tion of  the  Seventh  Commandment,  or  adultery ; 
observe  how  Scripture  combines  greed  and  lust : 
The  Gentiles,  being  past  feeling,  gave  themselves  Epii.  iv,  19 
up  to  lasciviousness,  to  work  all  uncleanness  with 
greediness  (covetousness);  Fornication,  and  all  un-  Epii.  v,  3-5. 
cleanness,  or  covetousness,  let  it  not  even  be  named 
among  you,  as  becometh  saints ;  for  this  ye  know 
of  a  surety,  that  no  fornicator,  nor  unclean  person, 
nor  covetous  man,  w^ho  is  an  idolater,  hath  any 
inheritance  in  the  kingdom  of  Christ  and  God  ;  Put  coi.  m,  5 
to  death  your  members  which  are  upon  the  earth ; 
fornication,  uncleanness,  passion,  evil  desire,  and 
covetousness,  the  which  is  idolatry.  Again  :  Covet- 
ousness tempts  us  into  violation  of  the  Eighth  Com- 
mandment, or  theft ;  recall  how  it  tempted  Achan  josh.  vii,  21. 
to  steal  a  goodly  Babylonish  mantle,  and  two  hun- 
dred shekels  of  silver,  and  a  wedge  of  gold  of  fifty 
shekels  weight.  Again  :  Covetousness  tempts  us  into 
violation  of  the  Ninth  Commandment,  or  bearing 
false  witness  against  our  neighbor ;  recall  how  the 
covetousness  of  Ahab  instio;ated  his  wife  Jezebel  to  1  Kin^s  xxi,  1 
employ  two  sons  of  Belial  to  bear  blasphemous  and 
fatal  testimony  against  Naboth,  saying,  "  Thou  didst 
curse  God  and  the  king."  Again,  and  generally  : 
Covetousness  tempts  into  niggardliness ;  see  how  it 
tempted  Lot  to  take  mean  advantage  of  the  magnan-  Gen.  xiii.  1-12. 
imous  offer  of  his  venerable  uncle,  and  choose  for  him- 
self all  the  plain  of  Jordan,  because  it  was  well- 
watered  everywhere,  like  the  garden  of  Jehovah. 
Again:   Covetousness   tempts    into    trickery;   see 


318  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Gen.  xxix,  1-30.  liow   it    tempted    Laban    into    the    deception   of 

Gen.  XXX,  25-43.  Jacob  in  tlic  matter  of  his  wedding,  Jacob  himself 
into  his  stratagem  of  the  flocks  and  the  peeled  rods. 
Again  :  Covetousness  tempts  into  arrogant  churlish- 

1  Sam.  XXV,  1-13.  ncss ;  recall  the  story  of  Nabal,  rightly  so  named, 
for  Nabal  means  fool,  and  Nabal  was  a  fool  by 
practice  as  well  as  by  name;  when  the  outlawed 
David,  fleeing  before  the  spear  of  Saul,  sent  to 
Nabal  a  courteous  request  for  supplies,  the  rich  fool 
insolently  replied  :  "  Who  is  David,  and  who  is  the 
son  of  Jesse?  There  be  many  servants  now-a- 
days  that  break  away  every  man  from  his  master  !  '^ 
Whereupon  the  wandering  outlaw,  stung  to  the 
quick,  fiercely  shouted  to  his  followers,  "  Gird  ye 
on  every  man  his  sword  ! " — an  ancient  struggle, 
intensely  interesting  because  it  is  the  first  recorded 
instance  of  the  collision  of  Capital  and  Labor. 
Again  :  Covetousness  tempts  into  unnatural  cruelty  ; 

Neh.  V,  1-13.  recall  the  story  of  the  dearth  in  the  days  of  Nehe- 
miah,  when  there  arose  a  great  cry  of  the  people 
against  their  brethren  the  Jews,  because  they  were 
mortgaging  their  fields  and  vineyards  and  houses 
to  their  own  kindred,  exacting  usury  every  one  of 
his  brother,  and  bringing  their  own  sons  and 
daughters  into  bondage — a  tragic  story,  alas  !  often 
repeated  in  the  world's  history.  Again  :  Covetous- 
ness tempts  into   prostitution  of  noble   gifts  and 

2  Peter  ii,  15.       Opportunities ;  see  how  it  tempted  Balaam  the  son 

of  Beor,  w^ho  loved  the  hire  of  wrong  doing,  to  sell 

his  divinations  for  rewards;   the  sons  of  Samuel 

I  saiu.  viii,  3.      tlic  Judgc  to  forsakc  his  ways,  and  turn  aside  after 

lucre,  and  take  bribes,  and  pervert  ju^gmeut ;  Felix 


THE   TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  319 

to  postpone  the  acquittal  of  Paul,  hoping  that  money  Acts  xxiv,  26. 
would   be  given   him   for   releasing  him.     Alas ! 
Samuel  Butler's  satire  is  still  often  applicable : 

What  makes  all  doctrines  plain  and  clear  ?^  "  Iludibras," 

About  two  hundred  pounds  a  year.  •    * 

And  that  which  was  proved  true  before, 
Prove  false  again  ? — Two  hundred  more. 

Oh,  young  gentlemen.  Heaven  grant  that  when 
you  come  to  lay  down  the  responsibilities  of 
life,  whether  official  or  personal,  each  of  you  may 
receive  substantially  the  same  noble  testimony 
which  all  Israel  rendered  their  incorruptible 
prophet-judge : 

Samuel  said  unto  all  Israel,  Behold,  I  have  hearkened  unto  1  Sam.  xii,  1-5. 
your  voice  in  all  that  ye  said  unto  me,  and  have  made  a  king 
over  you.  And  now,  behold,  the  king  walketh  before  you  *. 
and  I  am  old  and  grayheaded  ;  and,  behold,  my  sons  are  with 
you  :  and  I  have  walked  before  you  from  my  youth  unto  this 
day.  Here  I  am :  witness  against  me  before  Jehovah,  and 
before  his  anointed  :  whose  ox  have  I  taken  ?  or  whose  ass 
have  I  taken  ?  or  whom  have  I  defrauded  ?  whom  have  I  op- 
pressed ?  or  of  whose  hand  have  I  taken  a  ransom  (bribe)  to 
blind  mine  eyes  therewith  ?  and  I  will  restore  it  you.  And 
they  said,  Thou  hast  not  defrauded  us,  nor  oppressed  us, 
neither  hast  thou  taken  aught  of  any  man's  hand.  ■  And"  he 
said  unto  them,  Jehovah  is  witness  against  you,  and  his 
anointed  is  witness  this  day,  that  ye  have  not  found  aught  in 
my  hand.    And  they  said,  He  is  witness  I 

Such  are  a  few  of  the  many  grave  perils  of  cov- 
etousness.  Let  the  Apostle  Paul,  writing  to  Timo- 
thy, his  own  beloved  son  in  the  faith,  sum  up  for 
us  these  perils : 

They  that  desire  to  be  rich  fall  into  a  temptation  and  a  snare    i  Tim.  vi,  9-11, 
and  many  foolish  and  hurtful  lusts,  such  as  drown  men  in 
destruction  and  perdition.     For  the  love  of  money  is  a  root  of 


320  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

all  kinds  of  evil :  which  some  reaching  after  have  been  led 
astray  from  the  faith,  and  have  pierced  themselves  through 
with  many  sorrows.  But  thou,  0  man  of  God,  flee  these 
things. 

It  is  as  though  St.  Paul  had  said : 

My  dearly  beloved  Timothy,  you  are  peculiarly  exposed  to 
the  temptation  of  covetousness  :  for  you  are  the  youthful  pas- 
tor of  a  rich  church  in  the  wealthy  and  already  heretical  city  of 
Ephesus.  Many  of  your  associates  have  misconceived  the  new 
religion,  grossly  supposing  it  to  be  a  source  and  means  of 
pecuniary  gain.  Let  me  then  warn  you  that  they  who  set  their 
heart  on  wealth,  whether  rich  or  poor,  expose  themselves  to 
the  most  terrible  dangers,  stumbling  into  pitfalls  of  many 
senseless  and  hurtful  passions,  such  as  plunge  men  into  bodily 
wreck  and  spiritual  destruction.  For  the  love  of  money -(and 
the  poor  may  love  it  as  much  as  the  rich)  is  a  root  of  all 
kinds  of  sin  and  disaster.  It  looks  indeed  at  a  distance  like  a 
beautiful  and  wholesome  plant :  but  it  is  a  most  baleful  plant. 
Alas,  there  are  church  members  in  Ephesus  who,  fascinated  by 
this  seemingly  fair  and  innocent  flower,  have  forsaken  the  pil- 
grim's path  to  pluck  it :  but  it  was  only  to  find  themselves 
wounded  by  its  many  thorns.  O  my  beloved  son,  flee  these 
things ! 

Tenth  Com-      And,  vouiig  gentlemen,  the  apostle's  warning  is  still 

niandment  •       '  -r»  i  i       rri        i     /-^  ^ 

btiii  Need-  pertinent.     Keraand  not  the  ienth  Commandment 
^  '  to  the  ancient    avaricious   sons  of  Abraham.     It 

is  still  needed  in  our  own  times  and  land.  For 
covetousness  is  a  universal  and  long-lived  plant, 
having  its  roots  deep  down  in  the  soil  of  our  fallen 
natures,  the  subsoil  of  selfishness.  Covetousness 
is  born  of  laziness,  of  discontent,  of  envy,  of  ambi- 
tion, of  love  of  show,  of  craving  for  position,  of 
passion  for  power — in  brief,  of  the  sense  of  a  mighty 
void  and  majestic  want.  Indeed,  I  scarcely  know 
any  greater  tribute  to  the  magnificent  possibilities 
of  the  human  soul  tlian  this  sense  of  a  vast,  inde- 
finable incompleteness,  a   majestic  vacuum  which 


THE   TENTH    COMMAXDMENT.  321 

covetousness  undertakes  to  fill,  alas,  in  the  rudest, 
shabbiest,  tiniest  of  ways.  But  to  this  I  shall  soon 
recur.  Meanwhile,  note  that  the  need  of  our  com- 
mandment in  our  own  age  and  laud  is  painfully  evi- 
dent. It  is  seen  in  our  greed  of  gold,  our  greed  of 
show,  our  greed  of  rank,  our  greed  of  office,  our  greed 
of  power,  our  greed  of  great  fortunes  ;  it  ia  seen  in 
our  fraudulent  transactions  of  countless  kinds,  our 
breaches  of  contract,  public  and  private,  our  be- 
trayals of  trusts,  our  defalcations  and  embezzle- 
ments of  endless  varieties;  it  is  seen  in  our  grasp- 
ing, merciless,  conscienceless  monopolies ;  it  is  seen, 
to  use  an  expressive  Americanism,  in  our  "  rings," 
those  magic  circles  of  financial  sorcery  and  political 
incantation  ;  it  is  seen  in  the  stunted  growth  of  the 
Christian  life  itself,  for  there  is  nothing  which  so 
chokes  the  Avord,  and  makes  it  become  unfruitful  ^^^^^  ^^'  ^^' 
as  the  entering  in  of  the  cares  of  the  world,  and 
the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the  lusts  of  other 
things.     John  Milton  is  right : 

Let  none  admire  "Paradise 

Lost,"  Book  I 
That  riches  grow  in  Hell ;  that  soil  may  best 

Deserve  the  precious  bane. 

Yes;  the  Tenth  Commandment  is  still  sadly  needed. 
Would  that  all  men  w'ere  content  with  asking  for 
tlie  simple  things  desired  by  Agur  the  son  of  Jakeh : 

Two  things  have  I  asked  of  thee  ;  Prov.  xxx,  7-9. 

Deny  me  them  not  before  I  die  : 

Remove  from  me  vanity  and  lies  : 

Give  me  neither  poverty  nor  riches  ; 

Feed  me  with  the  food  that  is  needful  for  me  : 

Lest  I  be  full,  and  deny  thee,  and  say.  Who  is  Jehovah? 

Or  lest  I  be  poor,  and  steal, 

And  use  profanely  the  name  of  my  God. 


322  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Problem    of       And  tliis  leads  me  to  say  a  few  words  about  the 

Limiting'  ,,  ^,...  .',        -j-      . 

Capital.  problem  oi  limiting  capital,  it  is  a  very  grave 
problem,  for  the  solution  of  which  we  are  not  yet 
prepared.  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  the 
amassing  enormous  capital  on  the  part  of  a  single 
individual,  or  on  the  part  of  a  corporation,  does 
throw  society  out  of  equilibrium,  setting  its  com- 
ponents at  strife.  If  we  have  a  right,  as  is  con- 
ceded, to  regulate  certain  matters — for  example,  the 
incomes  of  certain  corporations;  if  we  have  the 
right  to  prohibit,  except  under  certain  conditions, 
the  sale  of  gunpowder  or  the  sale  of  intoxicants, — 
I  do  not  see  why  we  may  not  by-and-by,  under 
guidance  of  sagacious  jurists,  legislate  with  a  view 
to  the  limitation  of  capital.  In  all  events,  the  great 
principle  to  be  borne  in  mind  here  as  elsewhere  is 

Eph.  iv,  25.  this :  We  are  members  one  of  another.  For,  Society, 
as  I  have  often  reminded  you  in  these  lectures,  is  a 

icor.  xii,  12.  single  moral  personality,  consisting  of  many  mem- 
bers organized  into  one  body.  Accordingly,  when 
one  of  these  members  or  ors^ans  accumulates — to  use 
phraseology  which  medical  students  will  appreciate 
— excessive  pecuniary  tissue,  it  suffers  congestion, 
and  distempers  the  whole  social  organism.  How  of- 
ten society  or  the  body  politic  suffers  from  monetary 
engorgement  or  plethora — for  example,  financial  hy- 
pertrophy, fiscal  dropsy,  even  pecuniary  hydroceph- 
alus! These  financial  tumors  in  the  body  of  society, 
disfiguring  it  and  enfeebling  it — what  a  striking  il- 

lamos  i,  21.  lustratiou  they  are  of  the  superfluity  of  naughtiness ! 
And  how  to  arrest  this  tendencv  to  morbid  cons^es- 
tion  of  wealth  is  indeed  a  baffling  problem. 


THE    TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  323 

Perhaps  we  may  gain  some  useful  hints  for  the  Year  of  Jubi- 
solution  of  the  problem  if  we  recur  to  the  Mosaic 
institute  of  the  Year  of  Jubilee.  Take,  for  ex-  Lev.  xxv,  8-55. 
ample,  its  provision  for  the  reversion  of  landed 
property.  When  Israel  under  the  lead  of  Joshua 
took  possession  of  Canaan,  the  whole  territory  was 
divided  into  portions  or  shares,  which  were  then 
distributed  by  lot  among  all  the  people,  each 
family  having  its  own  share  or  allotment ;  and 
this  allotment  was  a  family  possession  to  continue 
forever  as  the  property  of  the  descendants  of  tiie 
original  possessor  under  Joshua.  But  the  H-^brew 
lived,  as  we  live,  in  a  world  of  mutations  and  mis- 
fortunes. Accordino^lv,  he  mio-ht  feel  himself 
compelled  under  stress  of  poverty  to  sell  his  an- 
cestral estate ;  and  this  tiie  Mosaic  law  allowed 
him  to  do.  But  he  could  not  absolutely  alienate 
it :  the  year  of  jubilee  restored  it  to  him.  In  other 
words,  the  transfer  of  the  land  was  not  a  sale,  but 
a  lease ;  and  this  lease,  in  the  extremest  case  possi- 
ble, could  not  run  beyond  forty-nine  years.  Mean- 
wdiile,  the  land  could  be  redeemed  at  any  interven- 
ing period,  either  by  its  owner  or  by  his  nearest 
kinsman,  at  a  price  to  be  graduated  by  the  esti- 
mated produce  of  the  soil  for  the  unexpired  term 
of  the  lease — that  is,  till  the  next  jubilee.  If  he 
was  too  poor  to  redeem  it,  it  was  restored  to  him 
in  the  fiftieth  year  without  any  redemption  price. 
Thus  the  Hebrew  Jubilee  prevented  the  rise  of  a 
landed  oligarchy.  For  ownership  of  the  soil  is  in 
the  last  analysis  the  source  of  personal  supremacy. 
"The  profit  of  the  earth,''  says  Koheleth,  "is  for  eccI. v,9. 


324  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

all :  the  kiug  is  served  by  the  field."  It  is  the 
land  which  serves  both  governor  and  governed 
with  vegetables  for  food,  textiles  for  clothing, 
timber  and  clay  and  stone  for  buildings,  wood  and 
coal  for  heat,  ores  for  manufactures,  gold  for  circu- 
lating medium.  The  reason  why,  according  to 
some  etymologists,  the  first  man  was  called 
"Adam"  is  that  "  Adamah"  means  earth  or  soil : 
Gen.  ii,  7.  Jchovah  God  formed  man  (Adam)  of  the  dust  of 

the  ground  (Adamah).  Thus  the  land  supplies 
man  with  his  cradle,  his  home,  his  food,  his  tomb. 
I  think  that  man  has  reached  the  nadir  of  degra- 
dation when,  too  poor  to  buy  a  spot  for  his  grave, 
tiie  authorities  are  obliged  to  bury  him  in  Potter's 
Field.  "Mother-Earth,"  then,  being  the  primal 
fount  of  our  resources,  it  is  not  strange  that  there 
should  be  a  tendency  in  all  civilized  lands  to 
monopolize  the  soil.  Hence  the  patrician  usurpa- 
tions of  ancient  Rome;  the  feudal  sovereignties  of 
the  mediaeval  age;  the  partition  of  England  by 
William  of  Normandy,  giving  rise  to  the  complex 
and  oppressive  land-law  of  England,  aptly  styled 
"  the  Herculaneura  of  Feudalism ;"  the  cruel  land- 
lordism of  Ireland;  the  selfish  hunting-lodges  of 
Scotland ;  the  vast  land-monopolies  of  our  West ; 
and  the  like.  Now  this  monopoly  of  the  soil,  or 
rise  of  a  lauded  aristocracy,  was  prevented  in 
ancient  Palestine  by  the  Mosaic  statute  of  the 
Jubilee.  Twice  ev^ery  century  all  the  lands  were 
re-distributed  according  to  the  original  allotment 
under  Joshua.  Thus  Moses  anticipated  by  nearly 
a  millennium  some  of  the  essential  features  of  the 


THE   TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  325 

famous  Ao^rarian   laws  of  Kome.      And  in   thus 

securing  the  agricultural  equality  of  the  people,  he 

averted    social    tumults,   and    struggles    between 

patrician  and  plebeian  orders.     It  was  a  sort  of 

realization  of  an  ideal  society :  Judah  and  Israel  i  Kings  iv,  25. 

dwelt  safely,  every  man  under  his  own  vine  and 

under  his  own  fig  tree,  from  Dan  even  to  Beer- 

sheba.  In  brief,  the  Jubilee  was  Israel's  conservative 

institution,  periodically  rectifying  the  congestions 

and  inequalities  and  wrongs  of  society,  restoring 

the  original  order,  and  so  realizing  in  large  degree 

"  Machiavelli's  great  maxim — the  constant  renova-  Miiman's "  ms- 

n      1  T  in  '       '     1  n         toryofJews," 

tion  01  the  state  according  to  the  nrst  principles  of  Book  v. 
its  constitution."  Thus  the  law  of  the  Jubilee 
was  in  many  respects  a  practical  solution  of  some 
of  the  most  perplexing  problems  of  political 
economy.  Was  not  Moses  a  consummate  states- 
man? 

Nevertheless,  I  am  obliged  to  admit  that  the  The  Hebrew 
Hebrew  Jubilee,  as  an  institute  for  our  day,  would  Utopian, 
be  Utopian.  The  institution  was  admirably  suited 
to  a  people  living  in  a  primitive  age,  when  the 
social  relations  were  still  few  and  simple,  and  made 
possible  a  minute  and  imperious  legislation,  and 
even  justified  it.  But  it  would  be  quite  unsuited 
to  our  times,  and  even  impossible,  except  at  cost 
of  revolutions.  Recall,  for  a  moment,  the  almost 
infinitely  intricate  complexities  of  our  modern 
civilization :  for  example,  our  vast  domain,  with 
its  many  varieties  of  climates,  and  productions,  and 
pursuits;  the  myriadfold  application  of  natural 
forces  and  inventions  to  all  sorts  of  industries, 
-     28 


326  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

dividiug  tlie  life  of  the  people  into  Dumberless 
different  vocations;  the  complex  and  countless 
reticulations  of  commerce,  domestic  and  foreign  ; 
the  prevalence  of  enormous  systems  of  credits  and 
exchanges;  the  swiftness  of  locomotion  and  tele- 
graphic interchange  of  information  and  proposals ; 
.  and  the  like.  What  a  contrast  this  intricate  and 
intense  life  of  ours  to  that  far-off  simple  age  when 
the  Jews  occupied  Palestine  as  an  agricultural  and 
pastoral  people!  To  enact,  then,  that  in  every 
fiftieth  year  all  the  economic  relations  of  life  shall 
revert  to  the  condition  of  the  original,  patrimonial 
entail,  would  be  to  solicit  every  possible  disorder, 
and  upheave  the  very  foundations  of  society  itself. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  chief  peculiarity  of  the  He- 
brew Jubilee,  the  inalienability  of  estates.  While 
it  is  right  that  we  should  have,  as  we  do  have, 
laws  regulating  succession  or  inheritance,  yet  the 
principle  of  a  universal  and  perpetual  entail  would 
in  our  age  invite  to  improvidence  and  laziness. 
For  it  is  the  very  posiibility  of  mutations  of  pro- 
perty which  tend  to  make  men  vigilant,  industri- 
ous, and  self-respecting.  To  earn  my  own  living 
is  infinitely  more  manly  than  simply  to  inherit  it. 
No ;  the  jubilee,  as  a  statute  or  institution,  w^as 
fitted  for  a  primitive  age,  when  infant  society 
needed  a  legislation  which  was  both  minute  and 
peremptory.  But  when  society  reaches  a  maturer 
stage,  it  outgrows  the  need  of,  and  indeed  will  not 
brook,  microscopic  legislation.  I  think  it  was  our 
Thomas  jeffer-  own  President  Jefferson  who  said,  "  That  is  the 
best   governed   country   which    is   the   least   gov- 


SUD. 


THE   TE>'TH    COMMANDMENT.  327 

erDed."  lu  other  words,  while  children  are  to  be 
governed  largely  by  rules,  men  are  to  be  governed 
largely  by  principles. 

But  although  the  Hebrew  Jubilee,  as  an  or-  Analogy  of 
di nance  or  letter  has  perished,  yet  the  Hebrew  Ju-  Body, 
bilee  as  a  principle  or  spirit  survives.  It  has  even 
undergone  transfiguration,  re-emerging  in  a  form 
nobler  than  any  statute,  even  the  form  of  a  living 
organism.  Listen,  then,  to  St.  Paul's  parable 
or  analogy  of  the  human  body : 

The  body  is  not  one  member,  bid  many.  If  the  foot  shall  say,  1  Cor.  xii,  t4-26 
Because  I  am  not  the  hand.  Jam  not  of  the  body;  it  is  no^  there- 
fore not  of  the  body.  And  if  th£  ear  shall  say.  Because  lam  not 
the  eye,  lam  not  of  the  body ;  it  is  not  therefore  not  of  the  body. 
If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  where  were  the  hearing  7  If  the 
whole  were  hearing,  whei'e  the  smelling?  But  noio  God  hath  set 
the  members  each  one  of  them  in  t?ie  body,  even  as  it  pleased  him. 
And  if  they  were  all  one  member,  where  ivere  the  body  ?  But  now  they 
are  many  members,  but  one  body.  And  the  eye  cannot  say  to  the 
hand,  I  have  no  need  of  thee  :  or  again,  the  head  to  the  feet,  I  have 
no  need  of  you.  Nay,  much  rather,  those  members  of  the  body 
v'hich  seem  to  be  more  feeble  are  necessary:  and  those  parts  of  the 
body  which  loe  think  to  be  less  honourable,  upon  these  ice  bestow  more 
abundant  honour;  and  our  uncomely  parts  have  more  abundant 
comeliness;  tohereas  mir  comely  parts  have  no  need:  but  Ood 
tempered  the  body  together,  giving  more  abundant  honour  to  that 
part  which  lacked;  that  there  should  be  no  schism  in  the  body ;  bid 
that  the  members  should  have  the  same  care  one  for  another. 
And  whether  one  member  suffereth,  all  the  members  sniffer  with  it; 
or  one  member  is  honoitred,  all  the  members  rejoice  ivith  it. 

Young  gentlemen,  the  political  economist  has 
never  been  born  who  has  stated  the  philosophy  of 
society  so  profoundly.  It  is  only  when  we  con- 
ceive mankind  as  one  vast  body,  having  all  its 
members  or  organs  and  functions  in  co-ordination 
and  reciprocal  action,  that  we  get  the  key  to  the 


328  THE   TEN    COMMANDMENTS. 

problem  of  society.  In  fact,  it  is  just  because  we 
persist  in  conceiving  society  as  a  mechanical  struct- 
ure, or  at  best  a  voluntary  compact,  rather  than  as 
a  physiological  organism,  that  we  resort  to  legisla- 
tion rather  than  to  sympathy  as  our  medicine  for 
its  maladies  and  woes.  For  society,  it  must  be 
confessed,  is  shockingly  distempered,  its  members 
surveying  each  other  awry.  Dives'  lordly  eyes 
haughtily  shouting  to  Lazarus'  drudging  feet,  I 
have  no  need  of  you;  and  horny-handed  Labor 
ominously  muttering  in  the  fastidious  ear  of  Capital, 
I  have  no  need  of  thee.  How,  then,  shall  we  heal 
the  social  schism?  By  accepting  God's  own 
method  of  tempering  the  body  together,  giving 
special  honor  to  the  uncomely  parts  which  lack  ; 
removing,  so  to  speak,  the  obstructions  in  the  cir- 
culatory system,  and  equalizing  the  flow  of  the 
life-blood  throughout  the  social  organism  ;  setting 
the  members  of  the  body  in  sympathetic  compen- 
sation, letting  eye  and  ear,  hand  and  foot,  nerve 
and  muscle,  bone  and  joint,  deftly  co-operate  in 
reciprocal  couuterplay.  In  what  proportion  society 
feels  itself  to  be  what  its  Maker  intended  it  should 
be — namely,  one  organic  person  rather  than  an 
organized  structure — in  that  proportion  social  strifes 
will  cease,  class  distinctions  disappear,  Capital  and 
Labor  mutually  embrace,  reciprocally  exclaiming, 
*'  We  are  members  one  of  another!"  In  fact,  one 
of  the  chief  functions  of  riches  is  to  enrich  the  poor. 
For,  while  men  have  a  right  to  property,  they  have 
a  right  to  it  only  as  trustees  of  God,  charged  by 
him  with  administering  his   intrustments   for  the 


THE   TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  329 

benefit    of    the    community.      Accordingly,  over 

against  Proudhon's  famous  dictum  :  "Xa  propriety 

cest  le  volj^  I  venture  the  dictum :  Property  is  a 

divine  means  of  equity.     That  is,  God  has  appointed 

the  rich  to  be  his  trustees  for  the  poor,  the  poor  to 

be  the  wards  of  the  rich.     The  bosoms  of  the  poor 

are  the  rich  man's  real  coffers.     Nor  is  there  in  this 

any  communism,  except  in  the  noble  sense  of  this 

perverted  word.    The  true  socialism  is  not  a  statute, 

but  a  spirit ;  not  a  mechanical  screw,  but  a  natural 

flow ;   not  a  vast  Sahara  of  arid  monotony,  but  a 

vast  compensation  of  mountain  and  valley,  keeping 

the  waters  under  the   firmament   and  the  waters  Gen.  i,  7. 

above  the  firmament  in  everlasting  equipoise.     Let 

the  moral  scales  be  accurately  adjusted  in  the  matter 

of  property,  and  the  miracle  of  the  manna  will  be 

renewed:    He   that   gathered   much   had   nothing  Exod.  xvi,  is; 

over,  and  he  that  gathered  little  had  no  lack. 

Let  me  offer  two  concluding  thoughts. 

And,  first,  the  follv  as  well  as  o^uilt  of  covetous-  Folly  of  Cov- 
ness.     Listen  to  the  Teacher  sent  from  God: 

Take  heed,  and  keep  yourselves  from  all  covetouecess  :  for  a  Luke  xii,  l5-2i. 
man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  which 
he  possesseth.  And  he  spake  a  parable  unto  them,  saying, 
The  ground  of  a  certain  rich  man  brought  forth  plentifully: 
and  he  reasoned  within  himself,  saying.  What  shall  I  do, 
b(!cause  I  have  not  where  to  bestow  my  fruits  ?  And  he  said, 
This  will  I  do  :  I  will  pull  down  my  barns,  and  build  greater  ; 
and  there  will  I  bestow  all  my  corn  and  my  goods.  And  I 
will  say  to  my  soul,  Soul,  thou  hast  much  goods  laid  up  for 
many  years ;  take  thine  ease,  eat,  drink,  be  merry.  But  God 
said  unto  him,  Thou  foolish  one,  this  ni^ht  is  thy  soul  required 
of  thee ;  and  the  things  which  thou  hast  prepared,  whose 
shall  they  be?  So  is  he  that  layeth  up  treasure  for  himself, 
and  is  not  rich  toward  God. 


330 


THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 


Vs.  xlix.  17. 


I  Tim.  vi,  7. 


Measur-" 
Measure, 


for 
HI. 


lames  v,  1-4. 


Long  before  the  Lord  of  parables  said  this,  one 
of  the  sous  of  Korah  had  sang  concerning  a  rich 
man : 

When  he  dieth  he  shall  carry  nothing  away; 
His  glory  shall  not  descend  after  him. 

And  the  Apostle  Paul  echoes  the  sentiment :  "  We 
brought  nothing  into  the  world,  for  neither  can  we 
carry  anything  out."  It  is  told  of  Alexander  the 
Great  that  he  gave  orders  that,  when  he  should  die, 
his  hands  should  be  left  outside  his  coffin,  so  that  his 
friends  might  see  that,  though  he  had  conquered 
the  world,  he  could  take  nothing  of  his  conquests 
into  the  hereafter.  In  like  manner,  the  famous 
Saladin,  it  is  said,  ordered  a  long  spear  with  a  white 
flag  attached  to  it  to  be  carried  through  liLs  camp, 
bearing  this  inscription :  "  The  mighty  King  Sa- 
ladin, the  conqueror  of  all  Asia  and  Egypt,  takes 
with  him,  when  he  dies,  none  of  his  possessions 
except  this  linen  flag  for  a  shroud."  So  also  Vin- 
centio,  Duke  of  Vienna,  to  Claudio : 

If  thou  art  rich,  thou  art  poor; 
For,  like  an  ass  whose  back  with  ingots  bow, 
Thou  bear'st  thy  heavy  riches  but  a  journey, 
And  death  unloads  thee. 

O  young  friends,  let  me  warn  you  again  by  the 
Lord's  parable  of  the  rich  fool.  God  forbid  that 
when  you  have  entered  on  the  responsibilities  of 
business  life,  and  accumulated  fortunes,  any  of  you 
should  earn  the  awful  malediction  of  James  the 
Just: 

Go  to  now,  ye  rich,  weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries  that  are 
coming  upon  you.  Your  riches  are  corrupted,  and  your  gar- 
ments are  moth-eaten.     Your  gold  and  your  silver  are  rusted ; 


THE   TENTH    COMMANDMENT.  331 

and  their  rust  shall  be  for  a  testimony  against  you,  and  shall 
eat  your  flesh  as  fire.  Ye  have  laid  up  your  treasure  in  the  last 
days.  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  labourers  who  mowed  your 
fields,  which  is  of  you  kept  back  by  fraud,  crieth  out :  and  the 
cries  of  them  that  reaped  have  entered  into  the  ears  of  the 
Lord  of  Sabaoth. 

Rather  may  it  be  for  each  of  you  to  be  able  to 
accept  the  challenge  of  heaven's  sentry : 

Jehovah,  who  shall  sojourn  in  thy  tabernacle?  Ps.  xv,  1-5. 

Who  shall  dwell  in  thy  holy  hill  ? 

He  that  walketh  uprightly,  and  worketh  righteousness. 
And  speaketh  truth  in  his  heart. 
He  that  slandereth  not  with  his  tongue, 
Nor  doeth  evil  to  his  friend. 
Nor  taketh  up  a  reproach  against  his  neighbour. 
In  whose  eyes  a  reprobate  is  despised ; 
But  he  honoureth  them  that  fear  Jehovah. 
He  that  sweareth  to  his  own  hurt,  and  changeth  not. 
He  that  putteth  not  out  his  money  to  usury, 
Nor  taketh  reward  against  the  innocent. 
He  that  doeth  these  things  shall  never  be  moved. 

And  this  leads  me  to  my  other  concludins:  thous^ht  w  i  s  d  o  m  of 

"  o  o  Beneficence. 

- — the  wisdom  of  beneficence.     For  there  is  at  least 

one  thing  we  can  take  with  us  into  the  heavenly 

hereafter :  it  is  a  beneficent  Christian  character  with    ^^ 

all  its  gracious  fruits.     "Blessed  are  the  dead  who  Rev.xiv,  13. 

die  in   the  Lord  from  henceforth :  yea,  saith  the 

Spirit,  that  they  may  rest  from  their  labours;  for 

their  works  follow  with  them."     Cultivate,  then, 

young   gentlemen,  a  generous  spirit.     Aye,  covet  icor.  xii.si. 

earnestly  something  better  than  any  property  of 

your  neighbor's,  even  the  more  excellent  way  of 

charity  or  love.     So  shall  you  make  for  yourselves  Luke  xii,  33. 

purses  which  wax  not  old,  a  treasure  in  the  heavens 

tliat  faileth  not,  where  no  thief  draweth  near,  neither 


\  332  THE   TEN   COMMANDMEKTS. 

1  Tim.  yi,  18, 19.  motli  destroyeth.  Do  good,  then ;  be  rich  in  good 
\  works ;  be  ready  to  distribute ;  be  willing  to  com- 
municate— thus  shall  you  in  very  truth  lay  up  in 
store  for  yourselves  a  good  foundation  against  the 
time  to  come,  and  so  lay  hold  on  the  life  which  is 

Lukexvi,9.  life  indeed.^  Then  even  the  mammon,  now  so 
unrighteous  and  hostile,  shall  be  transfigured  into 
a  pure  and  glorious  friend,  who,  when  we  shall 
have  crossed  the  Dark  River,  shall  welcome  us  into 
the  eternal  tabernacles. 

Collect.  0  AlmigMy  God,  who  alone  canst  order  the  unruly  wills  and 

affections  of  sinful  men  ;  Grant  unto  thy  people,  that  they  may 
love  the  thing  which  thou  commandest,  and  desire  that  which 
thou  dost  promise :  that  so,  among  the  sundry  and  manifold 
changes  of  the  world,  our  hearts  may  surely  there  be  fixed, 
where  true  joys  are  to  be  found ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.    Amen. 


1 "  When  a  man  dies,  they  who  survive  him  ask  what  property 
he  has  left  behind.  The  angel  who  bends  over  the  dying  man 
asks  what  good  deeds  he  has  sent  before  him." — "Alcoran." 


XII. 

THE  LORD'S  SUMMARY   OF  THE  TEN 

COMMANDMENTS. 


One  of  them,  a  lawyer,  asked  him  a  question,  try- 
ing him.  Master,  which  is  the  great  commandment  in 
the  law  ?  And  he  said  unto  him,  Thou  shalt  love  the 
Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul, 
and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the  great  and  first  com- 
mandment. And  a  second  like  unto  it  is  this.  Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  On  these  two  com- 
mandments hangeth  the  whole  law,  and  the  prophets. 

Matthew  xxii,  35-40. 

One  of  the  scribes  came,  and  heard  them  questioning 
together,  and  knowing  that  he  had  answered  them  well, 
asked  him,  What  commandment  is  the  first  of  all? 
Jesus  answered,  The  first  is.  Hear,  O  Israel ;  The  Lord 
our  God,  the  Lord  is  one:  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength.  The 
second  is  this.  Thou  slialt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 
There  is  none  other  commandment  greater  than  these. 

Mark  xii,  2^1. 


XII. 

THE  LORD'S  SUMMARY  OF  THE  TEN 
COMMANDMENTS. 

It  is  the  Tuesday  before  the  crucifixion.     And  The    Confed- 

,  e  r  a  t  e    As- 

yet  it  has  been  a  triumphant  day  for  the  Nazarene.  sauit. 
His  hierarchical  enemies,  chafed  into  fury  by  the 
spirituality  of  his  teachings  and  the  purity  of  his 
character,  and  stung  into  an  agony  of  envy  by  his 
growing  popularity,  had  determined  upon  a  com- 
bined and  desperate  assault.  The  common  hate 
has  confederated  for  once  Pharisee  and  Sadducee, 
Priest  and  Herodian.  And  yet  they  did  not  dare 
to  lay  hold  on  him,  for  they  feared  the  multitudes.  Matt.  xsi,46. 
because  they  took  him  for  a  prophet.  But  they 
resorted  to  a  policy  more  wily,  and  for  that  reason 
more  promiseful  of  success :  they  took  counsel  how  Matt,  xxu,  15. 
they  might  ensnare  him  in  his  talk.  Ah,  young 
friends,  words  are  still  the  weakest  point  in  the 
citadel  of  the  soul.  But  the  Divine  Master  of 
words  and  thoughts  easily  proved  himself  more 
than  a  match  for  his  subtle  enemies,  being  himself 

Keen  through  wordy  snares  to  track  "In     M era- 

Suggestion  to  her  inmost  cell.  XCIV. 

His  adversaries'  first  attempt  was  to  entrap  him  The  Political 
in  a  political  snare.  Accordingly,  the  Pharisees —  Matt!^xxii,  le- 
leaders  of  the  intensely  Jewish,  anti-Roman  party, 

335 


336  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

and  the  Herod ians — ^partisans  of  Herod,  the  rep- 
resentative of  Home,  laid  aside  for  the  moment 
their  mutual  enmities,  and,  taking  counsel,  con- 
cocted what  they  imagined  would  prove  a  most 
embarrassing  question.  They  would  come  to  him 
as  earnest  inquirers,  seeking  his  opinion  as  to  the 
rightfulness  of  acknowledging  the  Roman  authority 
by  paying  over  to  Caesar  the  hated  capitation  tax  : 
^'  Master,  we  know  that  thou  art  true,  and  teachest 
the  way  of  God  in  truth,  and  carest  not  for  any 
one:  for  thou  regardest  not  the  person  of  men. 
Tell  us  therefore,  What  thinkest  thou  ?  Is  it  law- 
ful to  give  tribute  unto  Caesar,  or  not?  Shall  we 
give,  or  shall  we  not  give?''  It  was  indeed  an 
adroit  stratagem.  If  he  should  answer,  "Yes,'' 
thus  deciding  for  the  Romans  and  against  the  Jews, 
he  would  array  against  himself  all  his  own  country- 
men. If  he  should  answer,  "No,"  thus  deciding 
for  the  Jews  and  against  the  Romans,  he  would 
array  against  himself  the  civil  power.  In  the 
event  of  either  answer,  there  seemed  no  possible 
way  of  escape.  But  the  Nazarene  was  easily  equal 
to  the  crisis.  Perceiving  their  wicked  craftiness, 
he  said,  "  Why  try  ye  me,  ye  hyprocrites  ?  Shew 
me  the  tribute  money."  And  they  brought  unto 
him  a  denarius  (a  Roman  coin,  worth  about  sixteen 
cents).  Pointing  to  the  emperor's  effigy  and  name 
and  titles  inscribed  on  the  coin,  he  asks  :  "  Whose  is 
this  image  and  superscription  ?  "  They  promptly 
answer:  "Caesar's."  The  simple  fact  that  the 
Roman  denarius  passed  as  current  coin  in  Palestine 
was   of  course  a   virtual   recognition   of  Caesar's 


337 

authority.  Accordingly,  to  the  crafty  question  of 
his  foes  the  Lord  replies  :  "  Render  therefore  unto 
Csesar  the  things  that  are  Caesar's ;  and  unto  God 
the  things  that  are  God's."  Hearing  this  unex- 
pected answer,  they  marveled,  and  left  him,  and 
went  their  way. 

Foiled  in  their  attempt  to  ensnare  him  in  a  politi-  The  Theoiog- 
cal  trap,  they  now  set  a  theological.  This  time  it  Matt^  xxu,  -23- 
is  the  Sadducees,  deniers  of  the  resurrection,  who  34^a6. 
undertake  the  exploit.  Drawing  their  weapon 
from  the  armory  of  the  Mosaic  law  touching  Levi' 
rate  marriages,  they  fancy  they  are  about  to  pose 
him  with  a  very  baffling  query.  "Master,  Moses 
said.  If  a  man  die,  having  no  children,  his  brother  peut.  xxv,  5,  e. 
shall  marry  his  wife,  and  raise  up  seed  unto  his 
brother.  Now  there  were  with  us  seven  brothers : 
and  the  first  married  and  died,  and,  being  childless, 
left  his  wife  unto  his  brother ;  in  like  manner  the 
second  also,  and  the  third,  unto  the  seventh.  And 
after  them  all  the  woman  also  died.  In  the  resur- 
rection therefore  whose  wife  shall  she  be  of  the 
seven?  for  they  all  had  her."  Coarse  as  this  sup- 
posed case  was,  it  did  raise  a  perplexing  prob- 
lem. But  again  the  Nazarene  is  equal  and  more 
than  equal  to  the  crisis.  Turning  to  them,  he  an- 
swered ;  "  Ye  do  err,  not  knowing  the  Scriptures, 
nor  the  power  of  God.  The  sons  of  this  world 
marry,  and  are  given  in  marriage:  but  they  that 
are  accounted  worthy  to  attain  to  that  world,  and 
the  resurrection  from  the  dead,  neither  marry,  nor 
are  given  in  marriage :  for  neither  can  they  die  any 
more :  for  they  are  equal  unto  the  angels ;  and  are 
29 


338  THE  TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

sons  of  God,  being  sons  of  the  resurrection."  Bat 
the  Son  of  man  is  not  content  with  simply  declar- 
ing that  there  is  no  basis  for  their  problem.  He 
now  becomes  himself  aggressive,  showing  these 
Sadducean  deniers  of  the  resurrection  how  ignor- 
ant they  w^re  of  their  own  Scriptures,  which  taught, 
at  least  implicitly,  the  doctrine  of  a  life  beyond  the 
grave.  "  But  as  touching  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  have  ye  not  read  in  the  book  of  Moses,  in 
the  place  concerning,  the  Bush,  how  God  spake  unto 

Exod.iii.e.  him,  saying,  I  am  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the 
God  of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob  ?  Now  God 
is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living ;  for 
all  live  unto  him :  ye  do  greatly  err."  What  a 
tremendous  argument!  It  is  as  though  he  had 
said,  "  Observe  the  tense  which  Jehovah  uses  in  his 
declaration  to  Moses  at  the  Bush.  He  does  not 
say  :  I  have  been,  I  was,  the  God  of  Abraham, 
and  Isaac,  and  Jacob :  but  he  says  ;  I  am  their  God. 
Now  the  bodies  of  these  patriarchs  had  been  dead 
for  centuries.  Nevertheless,  Jehovah  declares  that 
he  is  still  their  God  :  for  he  is  not  a  God  of  the 
dead,  he  is  the  God  of  the  living.  Yes,  ye  Sadducees, 
there  is  a  life  hereafter."  No  wonder  that  when 
the  multitudes  heard  this  answer,  they  were  aston- 
-    ished  at  his  teaching. 

The  Casuist-        Having   been    thus   signally   baffled    in    their 
attempts  to  catch  him   in   his  words,  iiis  enemies 

Matt,  xxii,  34-  now  make  a  third  attempt.     This  time  it  is  a  law- 

46  ■  Mark  xii 

28-34.  '  yer,  standing  forth  as  the  representative  of  the 

scribes,  who  makes  the  venture ;  and  the  snare  he 
tries  is  a  rabbinic  or  casuistical  snare.     "  Master, 


THE  lord's  summary.  339 

which  is  the  great  commandment  in  the  law? 
What  commandment  is  the  first  of  all?''  It  was 
for  that  age  and  people  a  really  perplexing  ques- 
tion. According  to  the  rabbins,  there  were  two 
hundred  and  forty-eight  precepts,  and  three  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  prohibitions,  making  a  total  of 
six  hundred  and  thirteen  commandments.  Of 
course,  where  there  were  so  many  ordinances,  they 
could  hardly  all  be  of  equal  value;  some  w^ould 
be  comparatively  subordinate;  and  some  would  be 
of  supreme  importance.  And  the  lawyer's  ques- 
tion amounted  to  this  :  "  Thou  also  claimest  to  be 
a  teacher  of  the  law  :  which  of  these  six  hundred 
and  thirteen  commandments  dost  thou  say  is  the 
most  important?"  And  once  more  the  untitled 
rabbi  from  Nazareth  is  more  than  equal  to  the 
crisis :  Jesus  answered  : 

The  first  is,  Hear,  O  Israel ;  The  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  Matt,  xxii,  37- 
one  :  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  S'sf'"*^*^  ''^"' 
and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy 
strength.  This  is  the  great  and  first  commandment.  And  a 
second  like  unto  it  is  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself.  There  is  none  other  commandment  greater  than 
these :  on  these  two  commandments  hangeth  the  whole  law, 
and  the  prophets. 

It  was  as  though  the  Divine  Man  bad  said  :  "I 
decline  to  enter  into  your  subtile  rabbinic  distinc- 
tions between  the  relative  importance  of  the  com- 
mandments: enough  that  I  declare  that  all  the 
law  and  the  prophets  revolve  around  the  one  great 
Commandment — Love^  It  was  a  fine  instance  of 
the  way  in  which  the  Mountain  Teacher  fulfilled  Matt,  v,  17. 
the  law  and  the  prophets  :  instead  of  seizing  on 


340  THE   TEN   CX)MMANDMENTS. 

this  or  that  detail,  he  grasped  the  whole  mass, 
showing  that  it  was  a  divine  unity.  How  vastly 
sublimer  his  teaching  than  the  minute,  technical, 

Matt.  vii,29.  heai'tless  pedantry  of  the  scribes,  for  ever  raising 
casuistical  questions  ridiculously  puerile,  as,  for 
example,  this :  "  If  a  man  should  be  born  with 
two  heads,  on  which  forehead  must  he  wear  tlie 
phylactery?''* 

The  Gratioiis       Such  was  our  Lord's  answer  to  the  scribe.     So 

tion.  ''         unexpected  and  massive   was  it   that  the    lawyer 

who  had  come  to  ensnare  him  was  himself  ensnared, 

Mark xii, 32, 33.  aud  hoDestly  cxprcsscd  his  admiration:  "Of  a 
truth.  Master,  tliou  hast  well  said  that  he  is  one ; 
and  there  is  none  other  but  he;  and  to  love  him 
with  all  the  heart,  and  with  all  the  understanding, 
and  with  all  the  strength,  and  to  love  his  neighbour 
as  himself,  is  much  more  than  all  whole  burnt 
offerings  and  sacrifices."  A  response  so  hearty  in 
its  warmth  could  not  but  evoke  in  its  turn  from 
the  magnanimous  Nazarene  a  gracious  recognition  : 

Maikxii,  34.  When  Jesus  saw  that  he  answered  discreetly,  he 
said  unto  him,  "  Thou  art  not  far  from  the  kinir- 
dom  of  God.''  And  so  the  tremendous  confed- 
erate assault  of  that  great  Tuesday  was  more  than 
tremendously  repulsed  :  "  No  man  after  that  durst 
ask  him  any  question." 

Christ's  Sum-  And  now  let  us  ponder  the  Great  Teacher's  sum- 
Decaioguef  "lary  of  the  Ten  Commandments : 

^  We  cannot  but  recall  Pope's  lines  in  his   criticism  on 
Milton : 

"  In  quibbles  angel  and  archangel  join, 
And  God  the  Father  turns  a  School  Divine." 

—Pope's  "  Dunciad." 


THE  lord's  summary.  341 

The  first  is,  Hear,  0  Israel ;   Tlie  Lord  our   God,  the  Lord  is    Matt,  xx 


40  ■  Mark  x' i 
one :  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and       29-i>l.  ' 

with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength. 

This  is  the  great  and  first  commandment.     And  a  second  like  nnto 

it  is  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.     TTiei-e  is  none 

other  €0)nmandment  greater  than  these  :  on  these  two  commandments 

hangeth  the  whole  law,  and  the  prophets. 

The  Great  Commandment,  then,  or  summary  of 
the  Decalogue  is,  you  perceive,  twofold :  the  first 
part  looks  Godward,  and  answers  to  the  first  table 
of  the  Ten  Commandments;  the  second  part  looks 
Man  ward,  and  answers  to  the  second  table.  Let 
us  pursue  the  subject  in  the  order  thus  indi- 
cated. 

And,   first,  the   Great   Commandment   looking  The  Godwar.i 

/-^     1  J  Command- 

God  ward  :  nient. 

Hear,  0  Israel;  The  Lord  our  God,  the  Lord  is  one:  and    Matt,   xxii,  .r. 
thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with       oy 'sol"'^'^  ^^' 
all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength  : 
this  is  the  great  and  first  commandment. 

It  is  a  citation  from  the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy : 

Hear,  0  Israel :  Jehovah  our  God  is  one  Jehovah  :  and  thou    Dent,  vi,  4, 5. 
shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all 
thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.^ 

^  These  words  form  the  beginning  of  what  is  termed  the 
Shama  ("Hear")  in  the  Jewish  services,  and  belong  to  the 
daily  Morning  and  Evening  Office.  They  may  be  termed  the 
Creed  of  the  Jews  ("  Speaker's  Commentary,"  in  loco).  This 
is  one  of  the  four  Scriptures  which  the  Jews  were  accustomed 
to  inscribe  on  their  phylacteries  and  Mezuzah ;  the  custom 
being  based  on  a  literal  obedience  to  the  injunction  of  Deut. 
6  :  4-9  :  "  Hear,  O  Israel ;  Jehovah  our  God  is  one  Jehovah  : 
and  thou  shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.     And  these  words, 


342  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Unity  of  God.  Hear,  0  Isi'ael ;  Jehovah  our  Elohim  is  one 
Jehovah.  It  is  a  very  weighty  saying.  First,  it 
asserts  that  Jehovah,  the  Covenant  God  of  Israel,  is 
Deity  absolute ;  the  self-existent,  eternal,  unchange- 
able, spiritual,  omnipresent,  omniscient,  omnipotent, 
holy,just,  true,  gracious,  perfect,  infinite  God.  Sec- 
ondly, it  asserts  that  this  infinite  Jehovah  is  abso- 
lutely one,  being  himself  an  infinite  unity,  all  his 
infinite  perfections  being  in  infinite  equilibrium. 
God's  very  blessedness  consists  in  this  infinite  equi- 
poise of  himself.  Thirdly,  it  asserts  that  there  is 
only  one  true  God — namely,  Jehovah,  Covenant 
God  of  Israel.  This  sublime  annunciation,  as  we 
saw  in  our  study  of  the  First  Commandment, 
marks  a  colossal  onward  stride  in  the  history  of 
religion ;  for  monotheism,  or  the  doctrine  that  there 
is  but  one  God,  is  the  basal  stone  of  Christian 
worship.  And  for  this  doctrine  of  monotheism  we 
are  indebted  to  the  Jew.  The  Mosaic  theology  is 
the  one  solitary  religion  of  antiquity,  whose  corner 
stone  was  this :  "  Jehovah  our  Elohim,  Jehovah 
one.''  The  singleness  and  unity  of  God  is  still 
the  corner  stone  of  theology. 

God  to  1)6  Su-  And  because  Jehovah  is  what  he  is,  Jehovah  is 
Lovca/        to  ^6  supremely  loved :    Thou  shall  love  Jehovah 


which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  upon  thy  heart :  and 
thou  Shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shall 
talk  of  them  when  thou  sittest  In  thy  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down,  and  when  thou 
risest  up.  And  thou  shalt  bind  them  fpr  a  sign  upon  thy  hand, 
and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets  between  thine  eyes.  And  tho". 
shalt  write  them  upon  the  door  pogtg  pf  thy  hpujse,  ^.nd  upon 
thy  gates." 


343 

thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  mth  all  thy  soul,  and 
with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength.  This 
word  ^'  love,"  as  the  Bible  uses  it,  is  a  very  com- 
prehensive word,  meaning  not  only  affection,  but 
also  trust,  obedience,  reverence,  worship.  First, 
we  are  to  love  the  Lord  our  <  God  with  all  our 
heart — that  is,  religiously,  with  all  our  spiritual 
faculties.  Secondly,  we  are  to  love  the  Lord  our 
God  with  all  our  souls — that  is,  aesthetically,  with  all 
our  psychical  gifts.  Thirdly,  we  are  to  love  the  Lord 
our  God  with  all  our  minds — that  is,  intellectually, 
with  all  our  mental  powers.  And  fourthly,  we  are 
to  love  the  Lord  our  God  with  all  our  strength — 
that  is,  corporeally,  with  all  our  bodily  energies. 
In  brief,  we  are  to  love  the  Lord  our  God  with  a 
supreme,  undivided  love.  For,  as  our  Divine 
Teacher  himself  has  said  : 

No  man  can  serve  two  masters  :  for  either  he  will  hate  the    Matt,  vi,  24. 
one,  and  love  the  other ;   or  else  he  will   hold  to  one,  and 
despise  the  other.     Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  mammon. 

Vivid  as  the  lanaruasie  is  to  us,  it  must  have  impossibility 

,  .,,  .    .  ?  1  111.^  of  Disloyal 

been  still  more  vivid  to  those  who  heard  it  irom  Loyalty. 
the  great  Master's  own  lips  in  those  days  of  actual 
slavery.  For  man  must  be  under  the  sway  of  some 
governing  principle  or  master  passion.  This  is  one 
of  the  characteristic  attributes  of  man.  As  you 
ascend  the  scale  of  manliood,  choice  takes  the  place 
of  instinct,  loyalty  to  a  governing  principle  takes 
the  place  of  drift.  The  little  child  lives  from  day 
to  day  without  settled  plan,  drifting  according  to 
instinct,  or  some  whim  of  the  passing  moment. 
This  is  true  also  of  the  savage — for  the  savage  is 


344  THE   TEX   CO^IMAXDMENTS. 

but  a  child's  soul  in  a  man\s  body ;  the  savage  has 
no  plans,  and  he  drifts  like  waif  or  cloud.  This 
is  even  true  of  those  full-grown  persons  in  civilized 
communities  who  have  the  outside  stature  of  men 
but  the  inside  smallness  of  infants — their  minds 
puerile,  their  wills  irresolute,  their  moral  grasp 
imbecile.  But  an  unfolded,  robust  character  is  a 
character  which  is  consciously  under  the  sway  of 
some  distinct,  dominant  principle.  It  matters  not, 
at  this  stage  of  my  statement,  what  that  principle 
is — it  may  be  this,  or  it  may  be  that — the  supreme 
point  is  this :  Whatever  the  principle  be,  it  controls 
him.  This  is  one  of  the  points  which  distinguishes 
man  from  animal. 

And  this  governing  principle  will  brook  no  rival 
or  competitor.  It  may  indeed  give  way  to  some 
other  principle ;  but  in  the  very  fact  of  its  giving 
way  it  ceases  to  be  the  master  power.  It  is  a  con- 
tradiction in  terms  to  say  that  two  conflicting  prin- 
ciples can  at  one  and  the  same  time  be  paramount ; 
the  one  or  the  other  must  yield.  It  is  as  impossible 
for  a  man  to  be  under  the  sway  of  two  opposite 
principles  at  the  same  time,  as  it  is  for  a  ship  to 
have  her  deck  and  her  keel  uppermost  at  the  same 
instant.  And  not  only  must  man  be  under  a  gov- 
erning principle :  man  can  be  under  but  one  gov- 
erning principle  at  a  given  time.  And  this 
governing  principle,  whatever  it  be,  if  steadily 
obeyed,  gives  directness  and  coherence  and  unity 
to  his  plans  and  conduct  and  life.  It  co-ordinates 
all  his  desires,  and  purposes,  and  forces  by  sub- 
ordinating them  to  one  and  the  same  governing 


THE  lord's  summary.  345 

principle.  It  gives  him  clearness  of  vision,  single- 
ness of  aim,  directness  of  movement,  symmetry  of 
conduct,  unity  of  life.  This,  then,  is  the  meaning 
of  the  Lord's  great  saying :  "  No  man  can  serve 
two  masters.''  Loyalty  to  the  one  is  disloyalty  to 
the  other.  It  was  not  possible,  in  the  war  of  our 
independence,  for  an  American  to  be  loyal  to 
Greorge  the  Third,  and,  at  the  same  time,  loyal  to 
George  Washington.  In  short,  you  cannot  go  up 
and  down,  backward  and  forward,  the  same  instant. 
You  can  serve  Jehovah  one  moment,  and  you  can 
serve  Baal  the  next  moment ;  but  you  cannot  serve 
both  Jehovah  and  Baal  the  same  moment.  And 
what  Jehovah  demands  is  an  undivided  service. 
Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind, 
and  with  all  thy  strength. 

This  is  the  great  and  first  commandment}     It  The   First 
is  "the  great  commandment"  because  undivided       ment. 
love  to  God  is  the  basal  condition  of  piety ;  and  it 
is  "the  first  commandment"    because  undivided 
love  to  God  is  the  primal  fountain  of  piety. 

And  now  we  pass  from  the  first  table  of  the  law,  The    m  a  n  - 
or   the   commandment   looking   Godward,  to   the      mandment! 
second    table   of   the   law,  or   the   commandment 
looking  man  ward. 

1 "  This  was  changed  by  many  documents  from  *  great  and 
first 'to  'first  and  great,'  as  smoother.  We  can  see,  upon 
reflection,  that  the  phrase  properly  begins  with  'great,'  be- 
cause that  was  the  point  of  the  inquiry ;  but  copyists,  like 
modern  compositors,  seldom  had  time  to  reflect." — "  Com- 
mentary on  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,"  by  John  A.  Broadus, 
D.  D.,  LL.D. 


346  THE  TEN   CX)MMANDMENTS. 

Matt,  xxii,  39;  And  a  second  like  unto  it  is  this:  Thou  shall 
Lev.  xix.is.  '  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 

The  Second  A  second  like  unto  it  Observe:  This  second 
ment.  "  commandment — "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself" — is  something  more  than  a  mere  sup- 
plement to  the  first :  to  say  only  that  were  to  miss 
a  great  truth.  This  second  commandment,  instead 
of  being  merely  supplemental  to  the  first,  is  abso- 
lutely complemental.  The  two  commandments 
are  really  not  two ;  they  are  simply  a  twofold  com- 
mandment, being  the  obverse  and  reverse  legends 
engraved  on  the  great  medallion  of  the  divine 
testimony  or  covenant.  In  other  words,  the  first 
commandment,  or  love  to  God,  is  piety  in  its  root: 
the  second  commandment,  or  love  to  man,  is  piety 
in  its  fruit.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  we  cannot  truly 
love  our  Father  in  heaven  without  loving  our 
brothers  on  earth  :  here  is  the  mistake  of  the 
religionist,  or  the  man  who  is  orthodox  in  creed, 
but  heretical  in  life.  And  we  cannot  truly  love 
our  brothers  on  earth  without  loving  our  Father 
in  heaven  :  here  is  the  mistake  of  the  moralist, 
or  the  man  who  is  blameless  in  life,  but  Christ- 
less  in  creed.  Let  St.  Paul  express  the  idea 
for  us : 


I  Cor.  xiii,l-3.  If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  but  have 

not  love,  I  am  become  sounding  brass,  or  a  clanging  cymbal. 
And  if  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  know  all  mysteries 
and  all  knowledge  ;  and  if  I  have  all  faith,  so  as  to  remove 
mountains,  but  have  not  love,  I  am  nothing.  And  if  I  bestow 
all  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  give  my  body  to  be 
burned,  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me  nothing. 


THE  lord's  summary.  347 

Or,  as  good  Isaac  Watts  versifies  it : 

Had  I  the  tongues  of  Greeks  and  Jews,  Isaac  Watta. 

And  nobler  speech  than  angels  use, 

If  love  be  absent,  I  am  found, 

Like  tinkling  brass,  an  empty  sound. 

Were  I  inspired  to  preach  and  tell 
Ail  that  is  done  in  heaven  or  hell, 
Or  could  my  faith  the  world  remove, 
Still  am  I  nothing  without  love. 

Should  I  distribute  all  my  store 
To  feed  the  hungry,  clothe  the  poor. 
Or  give  my  body  to  the  flame 
To  gain  a  martyr's  glorious  name  ; 

If  love  to  God  and  love  to  men 
Be  absent,  all  my  hopes  are  vain  ; 
Nor  tongues,  nor  gifts,  nor  fiery  zeal. 
The  work  of  love  can  e'er  fulfill. 

Or,  in  still  other  words,  there  is  no  real  diflPer- 
ence  between  morality  and  Christianity :  morality 
is  Christianity  looking  earthward ;  Christianity  is 
morality  looking  heavenward.  Christianity  is 
Christian  morals. 

Thou   shall    love    thy    neighbour.      But  who    is  Christ's  Defi. 
my  neighbor?     Once  before  has  this  question  been      Neighbor, 
asked,  and   memorable  was  the  answer.     Let  me 
recall  to  your  memory  the  occasion,  for  the  remi- 
niscience  is  particularly  appropriate  to  the  point  in 
hand  : 

Behold,  a  certain  lawyer  stood  up  and  tried  him,  saying,  Luke x,  25-37. 
Master,  what  shall  I  do  to  inherit  eternal  life  ?  And  he  said 
unto  him,  What  is  written  in  the  law?  how  readest  thou? 
And  he  answering  said.  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
strength,  and  with  all  thy  mind ;  and  thy  neighbour  as  thyself. 
And  he  said  unto  him.  Thou  hast  answered  right :  this  do, 


348  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

and  thou  shalt  live.  But  he,  desiring  to  justify  himself,  said 
unto  Jesus,  And  who  is  my  neighbour  ?  Jesus  made  answer 
and  said,  A  certain  man  was  going  down  from  Jerusalem  to 
Jericho  ;  and  he  fell  among  robbers,  who  both  stripped  him 
and  beat  him,  and  departed,  leaving  him  half  dead.  And  by 
chance  a  certain  priest  was  going  down  that  way  :  and  when  he 
saw  him,  he  passed  by  on  the  other  side.  And  in  like  manner 
a  Levite  also,  when  he  came  to  the  place,  and  saw  him,  passed 
by  on  the  other  side.  But  a  certain  Samaritan,  as  he  jour- 
neyed, came  where  he  was  :  and  when  he  saw  him,  he  was 
moved  with  compassion,  and  came  to  him,  and  bound  up  his 
wounds,  pouring  on  them  oil  and  wine ;  and  he  set  him  on  his 
own  beast,  and  brought  him  to  an  inn,  and  took  care  of  him. 
And  on  the  morrow  he  took  out  two  pence  (say,  thirty-four 
cents),  and  gave  them  to  the  host,  and  said.  Take  care  of  him  ; 
and  whatsoever  thou  spendest  more,  I,  when  I  come  back  again, 
will  repay  thee.  Which  of  these  three,  thinkest  thou,  proved 
neighbour  unto  him  that  fell  among  the  robbers?  And  he 
said,  He  that  shewed  mercy  on  him.  And  Jesus  said  unto 
him,  Go,  and  do  thou  likewise. 


According  to  the  Divine  Man,  then,  neighbor- 
hood does  not  consist  in  local  nearness ;  it  is  not  a 
matter  of  ward,  or  city,  or  State,  or  nation,  or 
kinship,  or  guild,  or  political  party,  or  religious 
denomination :  neighborhood  means  a  glad  readiness 
to  relieve  distress  wherever  found.  According  to 
human,  teachers,  it  was  the  Jewish  priest  and 
Jewish  Levite  who  were  neighbors  of  the  Jewish 
traveler  to  Jericho.  According  to  the  Divine 
Teacher,  it  was  the  Samaritan  foreigner  who  was 
the  real  neighbor  of  the  waylaid  Jew.  That  is  to 
say :  every  human  being  who  is  in  distress,  and 
whom  I  can  practically  help,  whether  he  lives  in 
Philadelphia  or  in  Pekin,  is  my  neighbor.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  locomotive  and  the  steam  engine 
and  the  telegraph  are  making  the  whole  world  one 


349 

vast  neighborhood.  In  brief,  opportunity  is  the 
only  practical  limit  of  neighborhood.  And  Jesus 
Christ  himself  was  the  best  illustration  of  his  own 
parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan.  He  was  man- 
kind's great,  typical  Neighbor,  stooping  from 
heaven  to  bind  up  the  wounds  of  our  far-off,  alien, 
waylaid,  bleeding  humanity,  and  convey  it  to  the 
inn  of  his  own  redeeming  grace. 

As  thyself.  That  is  to  say:  Let  thy  neighbor  OnrNeis^hbor 
be  to  thee  as  though  thou  thyself  wert  duplicated,  seii.^^^" 
himself  thy  other  self.  It  repeats  in  fresh  phrase- 
ology the  Golden  Rule  :  "As  ye  would  that  men  Luke  vi,  31. 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  also  to  them  like\vise.'' 
It  is  Christ's  doctrine  of  Society.  According  to 
him,  we  are  members  one  of  another.  Even  the  Eph.  iv,  25. 
great  Comte,  in  whose  elaborate  system  of  religion 
the  worship  of  Humanity  lies  as  the  corner-stone, 
discerned,  as  though  from  afar,  this  splendid  truth: 
for  he  taught  that  the  key  to  social  regeneration  is 
to  be  found  in  what  he  called  altruism,  or  the  state 
of  being  regardful  of  the  good  of  others,  the 
victory  of  the  sympathetic  instincts  over  self-love. 
Would  to  God  that  the  scales  had  fallen  from  this 
great  man's  eyes,  and  that  he  had  recognized  in 
the  ]\Ian  of  Nazareth  and  of  Calvary  the  true, 
infinite  Altruist !  For  Christianity  —  I  mean 
Christ's  own  Christianity — has,  on  the  one  hand, 
nothing  in  common  with  the  spirit  of  a  selfish 
monasticism  ;  she  shuns  the  cloister  and  the  desert, 
to  nestle  in  the  family  and  to  brood  over  the 
exchange.  And,  on  the  other  hand,  Christianity 
has  nothing  in  common  with  the  spirit  of  a  selfish 
30 


350  THE   TEN    COMMA XDMEXTS. 

communism  :  instead  of  saying  with  the  socialist, 
"  All  thine  is  mine/'  she  says  with  her  divine 
Founder,  "  All  mine  is  thine."  Modern  Sociology 
juts  out  into  the  sea  of  time  two  opposite  promon- 
tories :  the  promontory  of  volatilization,  or  the 
dispersion  of  the  individual  into  the  community  ; 
and  the  promontory  of  solidification,  or  the  concen- 
tration of  the  community  into  the  individual. 
Rome,  both  the  ancient  imperial  and  the  modern 
pontifical,  represents  the  former  extreme;  dissi- 
pating the  personal  into  the  general.  France,  with 
her  ideal  notions  of  communism,  represents  the 
latter  extreme ;  condensing  the  general  into  the 
personal.  The  Church  of  the  living  God,  in  so  far 
as  she  answers  to  the  ideal  of  her  Divine  Founder 
and  Head,  blends  the  two  extremes,  evermore  say- 
Eph.  iv,  25.  ing,  "  We  are  members  one  of  another."  Recall 
St.  PauFs  profound  analogy  of  the  human  body ; 
an  analogy  so  profoundly  philosophical  that  I  must 
quote  it  again :  for  it  is  the  master  key  to  the 
stupendous  problem  of  Sociology  : 

1  Cor.  xii,  14-26.  The  body  is  not  one  member,  but  many.  If  the  foot  shall 
say,  Because  I  am  not  the  hand,  I  am  not  of  the  body ;  it  is 
not  therefore  not  of  the  body.  And  if  the  ear  shall  say, 
Because  I  am  not  the  eye,  I  am  not  of  the  body  ;  it  is  not  there- 
fore not  of  the  body.  If  the  whole  body  were  an  eye,  where 
.  were  the  hearing  ?  If  the  whole  were  hearing,  where  were  the 
smelling?  But  now  hath  God  set  the  members  each  one  of 
them  in  the  body,  even  as  it  pleased  him.  And  if  they  were 
all  one  member,  where  were  the  body?  But  now  they  are 
many  members,  but  one  body.  And  the  eye  cannot  say  to  the 
hand,  I  have  no  need  of  thee  :  or  again,  the  head  to  the  feet,  I 
have  no  need  of  you.  Nay,  much  rather  those  members  of  the 
body  which  seem  to  be  more  feeble  are  necessary  :  and  tliosc 
parts  of  the  body,  which  we  think  to  be  less  honourable,  upon 


351 

these  we  bestow  more  abundant  honour ;  and  our  uncomely  parts 
have  more  abundant  comeliness ;  whereas  our  comely  parts 
have  no  need  :  but  God  tempered  the  body  together,  giving 
more  abundant  honour  to  that  part  which  lacked  ;  that  there 
should  be  no  schism  in  the  body  ;  but  that  the  members  should 
have  the  same  care  one  for  another.  And  whether  one  mem- 
ber suffereth,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  or  one  member  is 
honoured,  all  the  members  rejoice  with  it. 

That  is  to  say :  As  the  human  body  is  a  single 
organism,  consisting  of  many  diverse  members  and 
organs  and  functions,  balanced  in  common  counter- 
poise, and  working  in  mutual  interaction,  so  society 
is  a  single  moral  organism,  in  like  manner  consist- 
ing of  many  diversities,  balanced  in  similar  counter- 
poise, and  working  in  similar  interaction.  Here,  as 
we  saw  last  Sunday,  is  the  secret  of  the  reconciliation 
of  the  schism  in  the  body  of  humanity.  "What  so- 
ciety needs  is  to  be  educated  into  the  perception  of 
the  possibility  of  its  own  moral  equilibrium,  the  sense 
of  its  own  social  equipose.  Let  me  mention  some 
of  the  social  benefits  which  will  follow  the  cultiva- 
tion of  this  sense  of  moral  balance  or  human 
equilibrium.  For  example  :  This  sense  of  moral 
balance  will  tend  to  broaden  each  man's  horizon, 
assuring  him  that  he  is  not  so  much  one  of  the 
many  units  of  societ}^  as  he  is  a  member  of  the  one 
social  unity;  and  must  therefore  look  to  the  things  rini.  11,4. 
of  others  as  well  as  to  his  own  things — that  is,  love 
his  neighbor  as  himself.  Again  :  The  sense  of 
moral  balance  will  tend  to  equalize  the  blessings 
and  opportunities  of  life,  prompting,  for  instance, 
the  owner  of  two  coats  to  impart  one  of  them  to  Luke  iii,  11. 
him  who  has  no  coat  at  all;  thus  bringing  about  2 cor. vin,  14. 


352  THE   TEX   COMMANDMENTS. 

equality,  his  owu  abundance  being  a  supply  for  his 
neighbor's  want.  Again :  The  sense  of  moral 
balance  will  tend  to  settle  disputes,  whether  per- 
sonal or  international,  by  submitting  the  question, 
not  to  the  capricious  fortunes  of  litigation  or  of 
war,  but  to  the  equitable  decision  of  the  sense  of 
society  set  in  equilibrium.  Again :  The  sense  of 
the  moral  balance  will  tend  to  make  the  blessings 
of  Christianity  the  common  possession  of  mankind, 

2  Cor.  iv,  17.  impelling  each  Christian  to  feel  that  the  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory  in  his  own  scale  makes 

Rom.  i,  14.  iii jQ  a  grateful  debtor  both  to  Greeks  and  to  Bar- 

barians, both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  foolish.  In 
brief:  The  sense  of  moral  balance  Avill  tend  to 
reduce  the  moral  inequalities  of  society  to  a  gracious 

isa.  xi,  3-5.  equation,  exalting  the  valleys  of  poverty,  laying 
low  the  mountains  of  opulence,  straightening  the 
twists  of  wrongs,  smoothing  the  roughnesses  of  mis- 
fortune :  thus  preparing  in  the  wilderness  the  way 
of  Jehovah,  and  leveling  in  the  desert  a  highway 
for  our  returning  God.     The  Golden  Rule  itself — 

Mait.vii,  12.  "All  things  wliatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should 
do  unto  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them'' — 
what  is  it  but  humanity's  colossal  balance?  And 
when  this  colossal  balance  shall  be  truly  adjusted, 
then  shall  every  man  indeed  love  his  neighbor  as 
himself     Heaven  speed  the  day  ! 

The  Cardinal       And  now  listen  to  our  Lord's  cardinal  summary: 

Matt,  xxii,  40.*  "  Oil  tlicsc  two  commaudmcnts  hangeth  the  whole 
law,  and  the  prophets."  Cardinal,  I  say :  for  this 
word  "cardinal"  comes  from  the  Latin  cardo^ 
meaning    hinge.     On   these    two   commandments 


THE   LOPwDS   SUMMAIIY.  353 

swing,  as  a  door  or  gate  on  its  hinges,  all  the  law 
and  the  prophets,  or  the  wliole  Old  Testament. 

Thus,  on  the  hinge  of  the  First  Commandment —  Hin^^e  of  First 
Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy       meut. ' 
heart  and  soul  and  mind  and  strength — hangeth  the 
first  table  of  the  Decalogue : 

Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me.  Exod.  xx  3-11. 

Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a  graven  image,  nor  the  like- 
ness of  any  form  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is  in  the 
earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth  :  thou 
shalt  not  bow  down  thyself  unto  them,  nor  serve  them  :  for  I 
Jehovah  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of 
the  fathers  upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me  ;  and  shewing  mercy 
unto  thousands,  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep  my  command- 
ments. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  Jehovah  thy  God  in  vain  ; 
for  Jehovah  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name 
in  vain. 

Remember  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six  days  shalt 
thou  labour,  and  do  all  thy  work  :  but  the  seventh  day  is  a 
sabbath  unto  Jehovah  thy  God  :  in  it  thou  shalt  not  do  any 
work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  manservant, 
nor  thy  maidservant,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is 
within  thy  gates  :  for  in  six  days  Jehovah  made  heaven  and 
earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh 
day  ;  wherefore  Jehovah  blessed  the  sabbath  day,  and  hallowed 
it. 

On  the  hinge  of  the  Second  Commandment —  Hinge  of  Sec- 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself — hangeth  mandmenti 
the  second  table  of  the  Decalogue  : 

Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother  :  that  thy  days  may  be    Exod.  xx,  12-17. 
long  upon  the  land  which  Jehovah  thy  God  giveth  thee. 
Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 
Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 
Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbour. 
Thou  shalt  not  covet-  thy  neighbour's  house,  thou  shalt  not 


354 


THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 


Apos  tol  ic 
Echo    of 
Lord's 
Summary. 

Horn.  xiii.  8-10. 


Cor.xiii,  13. 


Gal.  V, 

14. 

Col.  iii 

,14. 

1  Tim. 

i,  5. 

James 

ii,  8. 

John  iv.  7-21. 


Summary  of 
the  Proph- 
ets. 


Micah.  vi,  6-8. 


covet  thy  neighbour's  wife,  nor  his  manservant,  nor  his  maid- 
servant, nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor  any  thing  that  is  thy 
neighbour's. 

And  observe  how  the  apostles  echo  and  re-echo 
our  Lord's  cardinal  summary.     For  example  : 

Owe  no  man  anything,  save  to  love  one  another  :  for  he  that 
loveth  his  neighbour  hath  fulfilled  the  law.  For  this,  Thou 
shalt  not  commit  adultery.  Thou  shalt  not  kill.  Thou  shalt  not 
steal.  Thou  shalt  not  covet,  and  if  there  be  any  other  com- 
mandment, it  is  summed  up  in  this  word,  namely.  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself.  Love  worketh  no  ill  to  his 
neighbour  :  love  therefore  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  law.  Now 
abideth  faith,  hope,  love,  these  three ;  and  the  greatest  of  these 
is  love.  The  whole  law  is  fulfilled  in  one  word,  even  in  this  : 
Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigbour  as  thyself.  Above  all  these 
things  put  on  love,  which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness.  The  end 
of  the  charge  is  love  out  of  a  pure  heart  and  a  good  conscience 
and  faith  unfeigned.  If  ye  fulfil  the  royal  law,  according  to 
the  scripture.  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself,  ye  do 
well.  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another  :  for  love  is  of  God ; 
and  every  one  that  loveth  is  begotten  of  God,  and  knoweth 
God.  He  that  loveth  not  knoweth  not  God ;  for  God  is  love. 
Beloved,  if  God  so  loved  us,  we  also  ought  to  love  one  another. 
If  we  love  one  another,  God  abideth  in  us,  and  his  love  is 
perfected  in  us.  God  is  love ;  and  he  that  abideth  in  love 
abideth  in  God,  and  God  abideth  in  him.  If  a  man  say,  I  love 
God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar :  for  he  that  loveth 
not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  cannot  love  God  whom  ho, 
hath  not  seen.  And  this  commandment  have  we  from  him, 
that  he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also. 

On  these  two  commandments  hang  also  "  all  the 
prophets.''  The  whole  prophetic  system  itself— 
what  was  it  but  a  denunciation  of  selfishness,  an 
inculcation  of  brotherly  love  ?  Let  me  cite  a  single 
example : 

Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  Jehovah, 

And  bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ? 

Shall  I  come  before  him  with  burnt  offerings, 


THE  lord's  summary.  355 

With  calves  of  a  year  old  ? 

Will  Jehovah  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams, 

With  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ? 

Shall  I  give  my  firstborn  for  my  transgression, 

The  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ? 

He  hath  shewed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good ; 

And  what  doth  Jehovah  require  of  thee, 

But  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 

And  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ? 

In  fine,  we  are  trained  for  the  heavenly  sonhood 
in  the  school  of  the  human  brotherhood.  In 
briefest  language,  Society  is  the  test  of  character. 

Thus,  on  these  two  commandments  of  love  to  Love  the 
God  and  love  to  man,  hangs, as  a  colossal  portal  on      Y.thlTu\^v,e 
its  two  massive  hinges,  the  whole  Bible  from  Gen-      ^lo'ai  Ui.i- 

°     '  ,  verse. 

esis  to  Revelation.  Or,  to  express  myself  in  phrase- 
ology suggested  by  the  undulatory  theory :  Love 
is  the  etherial  medium  pervading  God's  moral 
universe,  by  means  of  which  are  propagated  the 
motions  of  his  impulses,  the  heat  of  his  grace,  the 
light  of  his  truth,  the  electricity  of  his  activities, 
the  magnetism  of  his  nature,  the  affinities  of  his 
character.  In  brief,  love  is  the  very  definition  of 
Deity  himself.  Listen  to  the  beloved  disciple : 
"God  is  love ;  and  he  that  abideth  in  love  abideth  i  Joim  iv.ie. 
in  God,  and  God  abideth  in  him." 

"  I'm  apt  to  think  the  man 
That  could  surround  the  sum  of  things,  and  spy 
The  heart  of  God  and  secrets  of  his  empire. 
Would  speak  but  love  :  with  him  the  bright  result 
Would  change  the  hue  of  intermediate  scenes, 
And  make  one  thing  of  all  theology." 

Let  me,  young  gentlemen,  in  closing  this  series  Three  ron- 
of  studies  in  Christian  morality,  offer  three  parting      Tijougi.ts. 
thoughts. 


356  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Christ's  Con-  And,  first,  Jesus  Christ's  positive  contribution  to 
SoSogy.^''  sociology,  or  the  philosophy  of  society.  I  hardly 
need  say  that  sociology  is,  in  an  eminent  sense,  the 
practical  problem  of  our  age.  How  true  this  is 
may  be  seen  in  such  new  words,  or  old  words  with 
new  meanings,  as  altruism,  anarchy,  communism, 
nihilism,  socialism,  solidarity,  sociology,  and  the 
like.  The  recent  attempts  on  the  lives  of  monarchs, 
the  widespread  and  elaborate  machinery  for  pre- 
cipitating social  revolutions,  the  fierce  debates 
about  land-tenures  and  monopolies  and  preroga- 
tives of  capital  and  rights  of  labor,  the  constant 
imminence  of  strikes  and  bloody  uprisings — all  this 
certifies  with  ominous  eloquence  that  sociology  is 
indeed  the  paramount  practical  problem  of  tlie 
day.  And  love,  according  to  the  Divine  Man,  is 
the  key  to  the  problem.  Without  loitering  amid 
minute  classifications,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the 
various  theories  of  society  may  be  reduced  to  two. 
The  first,  to  borrow  a  term  from  chemistry,  is  the 
atomic  theory.  It  proceeds  on  the  assumption 
that  men  are  a  mass  of  separate  human  units,  or 
independent  Adams,  with  no  common  bond  of 
organic  union  or  interfunctional  connection.  Pusii- 
ing  to  the  extreme  the  idea  of  individuality,  its 
tendency  is  egotistic,  disjunctive,  chaotic.  Its 
motto  \%,  ^^  After  me  the  delugeJ^  It  is  the  theory 
of  the  anarchist,  the  professional  agitator,  the 
hater  of  mankind.  The  other  theory,  to  borrow 
again  from  chemistry,  is  the  molecular.  It  pro- 
ceeds on  the  assumption  that  humanity  is  one 
colossal  person,  eac  h  individual  member  forming  a 


357 

vital  component,  a  functional  factor  in  the  great 
organism,  so  that  membership  in  society  is  univer- 
sal, mutual  co-membership.  Recognizing  each  indi- 
vidual of  the  race  as  a  constituent  member  of  the 
one  great  human  corpus,  or  corporation,  its  ten- 
dency is  altruistic,  co-operative,  constructive.  Its 
motto  is,  "  We  are  members  one  of  another J^  It  is  Ei)h.  iv,25. 
the  theory  of  Jesus  Christ  and  those  who  are 
truly  his.  I  say,  then,  that  it  is  Jesus  Christ  who 
has  given  us  the  key  to  the  great  problem  of 
sociology.  Recall,  now,  the  intense,  unparalleled 
narrowness  of  the  ancient  Jew.  Even  broad- 
minded  Aristotle  said: 

*'  Of  all  wars  those  are  most  necessary  and  just  which  are   Aristotle's 
made  by  men  against  wild  beasts,  and  next,  those  made  by    "  P*^l*^y>"  ^^^t  8. 
Greeks  against  strangers,  who  are  naturally  our  enemies." — 
Quoted  by  Charles  Loring  Brace  in  his  valuable  book  entitled 
"  Gesta  Christij  or  a  History  of  Humane  Progress  under  Chris- 
tianity," page  190. 

How  bitter  the  invective  of  Plautus   '*A  man  is  Piautus' 

"  Asuianus." 

a  wolf  to  a  man  he  does  not  know''  (Homo  homini 
ignoto  lupus).     But  when  Jesus  Christ  came  into 
the  world  and  taught,  never  man  so  spake.     How  John  vu,  47. 
profoundly  original,  for  example,  his  Golden  Rule: 

All  things  therefore  whatsoever  ye  would  that  men  should  do    Matt,  vii,  12. 
unto  you,  even  so  do  ye  also  unto  them :  for  this  is  the  law 
and  the  prophets. 

lam  aware,  indeed,  that  cavilers  allege  that  this 
was  already  one  of  the  commonplaces  in  Jewish 
and  classic  literature.  Thus,  Gibbon,  speaking  of 
Calvin's  persecution  of  Servetus,  says: 

A  Catholic  inquisitor  yields  the  same  obedience  which  he    EdwardGibbon. 
requires ;  but  Calvin  violated  the  golden  rule  of  doing  as  he 


353  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

would  be  done  by,  a  rule  which  I  read  in  a  moral  treatise  of 
Isocrates  (in  Nicole,  torn.  1,  p.  93,  edit.  Battle)  four  hundred 
years  before  the  publication  of  the  gospel:  "'A  Trao-xocTcs 'v^' 

irepuiv  o^yi^eaBe,  ravra  tois  aAAots  fir)  iroieiTe." — "  Decline  and  Fall  cf 

the  Roman  Empire,"  LIV,  note  36. 

But,  as  Guizot  has  partly  pointed  out,  Gibbon, 
notwithstanding  his  eminent  scholarship,  makes 
here  a  twofold  mistake.  First,  he  misquotes 
Isocrates  by  representing  him  as  uttering  an  affirm- 
ative maxim  :  "  Do  unto  others  as  ye  would  that 
men  should  do  unto  you,"  Whereas,  the  maxim 
of  Isocrates  is  merely  negative :  "  What  would 
anger  you,  if  done  to  you  by  others,  that  do  not 
to  tiiem."  And,  secondly,  Gibbon  misquotes  Jesus 
himself  by  overlooking  this  pivotal  word  ^'  there- 

Matt.  vii,9-i2.  fove  ''  (that  is,  in  view  of  Christ's  teaching  of  God's 
Fatherhood),  and  so  misses  the  very  gist  of  the 
Golden  Rule.  In  other  words,  the  maxim  of 
Isocrates  appeals  to  self-love  ;  the  maxim  of  Jesus 
appeals  to  God's  Fatherhood.  Accordingly,  Gib- 
bon's sneer  is  as  unscholarly  as  it  is  malignant. 
No;  the  Golden  Rule  is  absolutely  original.  So, 
also,  is  Christ's  doctrine  of  neighborhood.  His 
parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan  abolishes  the  word 
^'  foreigner,"  and  transfigures  the  word  "  neighbor," 
making    "  the   whole    w^orld    kin."      Aye,   Jesus 

Eph.  li,  14.  Christ  is  himself  our  peace.     Accordingly,  wher- 

ever he  is  honored,  there  is  brotherhood  and  peace. 
Wherever  he  is  denied,  there  is  anarchy  and  war. 
May  it  be  for  us  all  to  share  in  the  spirit  of  the 
Prince  of  Peace,  for  so  shall  we  share  in  his  own 

Matt. V, 9.  beatitude:   "Blessed  are  the  peacemakers,  for  they 

shall  be  called  sons  of  God." 


THE   LORD'S  SUMMAPwY. 


359 


Secondly:  The  coming  one  nation  of  Mankind.   The    Coming 


For  humanity  is  still  advancing  in  the  direction 
indicated  in  tiie  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
Men  are  learning  more  truly  than  ever  the  art  of 
loving  their  neighbors  as  themselves.  Indeed,  the 
great  problem  of  sociology  is  no  longer  a  problem 
concerning  societies  or  men  so  much  as  it  is  a 
problem  concerning  Society  or  Man.  How  sig- 
nificant such  modern  expressions  as  international 
law;  comity  of  nations;  international  congresses 
for  securing  a  common  standard  of  time,  distance, 
weight,  money,  signals;  a  universal  alphabet;  and 
the  like.  Here  is  the  secret  of  the  vision  which 
inspired  the  youthful  hero  who  had  left  his  comrade 
for  a  little  to  gaze  once  more  on  the  castle  which 
sheltered  his  shallow-hearted  Amy: 

Men,  my  brothers,  men  the  workers,  ever  reaping  something 

new ; 
That  which  they  have  done  but  earnest  of  the  things  that  they 

shall  do. 

For  I  dipt  into  the  future,  far  as  human  eye  could  see. 

Saw  the  Vision  of  the  world,  and  all  the  wonder  that  would  be ; 

Saw  the  heavens  fill  with  commerce,  argosies  of  magic  sails, 
Pilots  of  the  purple  twilight,  dropping  down  with  costly  bales  ; 

Heard  the  heavens  fill  with  shouting,  and  there  rain'd  a  ghastly 

dew 
From  the  nations'  airy  navies  grappling  in  the  central  blue ; 

Far  along  the  world-wide  whisper  of  the  south-wind  rushing 
warm. 

With  the  standards  of  the  peoples  plunging  through  the  thun- 
der-storm ; 

Till  the  war-drum  throbbed  no  longer,  and  the  battle-flags 

were  furl'd 
In  the  Parliament  of  Man,  the  Federation  of  the  World. 


One  lluinau 

Nati(;u. 


I^cksley 
nail." 


360  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Aud  it  is  to  Jesus  Clirist  tliat  we  owe  this  ma- 
jestic conceptioD,  tin's  august  possibility  of  the 
coming:  one   mighty  nation  of  Mankind.     What 

Matt. vi, 6-13.  though  he  bids  each  of  us  enter  his  own  inner 
chamber,  and  having  shut  his  door,  pray  to  his 
Father  who  seeth  in  secret?  He  also  bids  each 
of  us  carry  the  race  with  him,  making  his  closet 
the  world's  oratory,  bidding  us  use,  in  our  solitary 
prayer,  the  plural  **  our,  we,  us^':  "After  this 
manner  pray  ye:  Our  Father,  Give  us  this  day 
our  daily  bread,  Forgive  us  our  debts,  as  ice 
also  have  forgiven  our  debtors.  Bring  us  not 
into  temptation,  Deliver  us  from  the  evil  one.'' 
Ah  !  with  what  easy,  blessed  omnipotence  does  the 
Son  of  man  sweep  away  with  these  two  words — 
"  Our  Father  " — all  the  elaborate  conceits  of  your 
ethnoloo;ists  touch ino^  the  varieties  of  Man  !  In 
spite  of  all  your  measurements  of  craniums  and 
facial  angles,  the  fact  remains  clear,  solid,  un- 
alterable, that  common  fatherhood  means,  on  the 
part  of  the  children,  common    brotherhood.     As 

Acts  *  34.  ^^"S  ^^  ^^>  ^^^^  ^^  "^  respecter  of  persons,  and  with 

James  1,17.  ^yhom  thcpc  Can  be  no  variation,  neither  shadow 
that  is  cast  by  turning,  invites  Jew  and  Gentile, 
Mongolian  and  Kelt,  Iranian  and  Eskimo,  Hottentot 
and  Iroquois,  to  call  him  Father;  so  long  Jew  and 
Gentile,  Mongolian  and  Kelt,  Iranian  and  Eskimo, 
Hottentot  and  Iroquois,  are  brothers.  These  two 
words — "Our  Father" — forever  settle  the  ques- 
tion of  the  moral  unity  of  the  race.  As  a  matter 
of  fact,  Christianity,  or  Christ's  spirit,  is  making 

Act8xvii,26.       of  one  every  nation  of  men  for  to  dwell  on  all  the 


361 

face  of  the  earth  ;  Christ's  character  is  the  unifying 
force  of  the  nations,  bridging  the  rivers  of  lan- 
guages, tunnelling  the  mountains  of  castes,  dis- 
mantling the  fortresses  of  races,  incorporating  all 
human  varieties  into  the  one  majestic  temple-body  icor.  Ti,i9. 
of  humanity.  For  Jesus  Christ  is  the  true  centre 
of  gravity ;  and  it  is  only  as  the  forces  of  humanity 
are  pivoted  on  him  that  they  are  in  balance.  And 
the  oscillations  of  humanity  perceptibly  shorten  as 
the  time  of  the  promised  equilibrium  draws  near. 
Ere  long  earth  shall  be  girdled  with  the  shining 
zone  of  love ;  and  then  shall — 

All  men's  good 
Be  each  man's  rule,  and  universal  Peace 

Lie  like  a  shaft  of  light  across  the  land,  •« The  Golden 

And  like  a  lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea,  Year." 

Through  all  the  circle  of  the  Golden  Year. 

Aye,  the  Golden  Rule  is  the  Golden  Key  to 
the  Golden  Age.  Be  it  for  us  all  to  join  in  the 
laureate's  Christmas  peal  for  Humanity's  New 
Year : 

Ring  out,  wild  bells,  to  the  wild  sky. 

The  flying  cloud,  the  frosty  light :  "  riam!""iv. 

The  year  is  dying  in  the  night ; 
Ring  out,  wild  bells,  and  let  him  die. 

Ring  out  the  old,  ring  in  the  new, 

Ring,  happy  bells,  across  the  snow  : 

The  year  is  going,  let  him  go  ; 
Ring  out  the  false,  ring  in  the  true. 

Ring  out  the  grief  that  saps  the  mind, 

For  those  that  here  we  see  no  more  ; 

Ring  out  the  feud  of  rich  and  poor, 
Ring  in  redress  for  all  mankind. 

31 


362  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS. 

Ring  out  a  slowly  dying  cause, 
And  ancient  forms  of  party  strife ; 
Ring  in  the  nobler  modes  of  life, 

With  sweeter  manners,  purer  laws. 

Ring  out  the  want,  the  care,  the  sin. 
The  faithless  coldness  of  the  times  ; 
Ring  out,  ring  out  my  mournful  rhymes, 

But  ring  the  fuller  minstrel  in. 

Ring  out  false  pride  in  place  and  blood. 
The  civic  slander  and  the  spite  ; 
Ring  in  the  love  of  truth  and  right. 

Ring  in  the  common  love  of  good. 

Ring  out  old  shapes  of  foul  disease  ; 

Ring  out  the  narrowing  lust  of  gold  ; 

Ring  out  the  thousand  wars  of  old. 
Ring  in  the  thousand  years  of  peace. 

Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free. 
The  larger  heart,  the  kindlier  hand  ; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 

Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be. 

Edification  Lastly  :  The  purpose  of  education  :  it  is  human 

o^f  ^EdK  edification— that  is,  Society-building, 
tion.  And  this  parting  hint,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  young 

gentlemen,  is  really  needed.     For,  as  St.  Paul  re- 

icor.viii,!.  miuds  US,  knowledge  puffeth  up.  Of  course,  the 
apostle  does  not  mean  to  denounce  knowledge  as 
knowledge.  The  man  never  lived  who  had  a  deeper 
reverence  for  wisdom  or  true  philosophy.  But 
what  he  means  to  assert  is  this :  Knowledge,  when 
worshiped  as  an  end  rather  than  handled  as  a 
means,  does  tend  to  vaunting.  There  is  something 
in  the  very  sense  of  being  erudite  or  intellectual 
that  somehow  tempts  into  airy  self-conceit  and 
moral  tumefaction  :  Knowledge  puffeth  up.     The 


THE  lord's  summary.  363 

very  sense  of  superior  mental  attainments  is  apt 
to  separate  the  scholar  from  the  people,  not  by  the 
upbuilding  force  of  moral  growth,  but  by  the  levita- 
tiug  force  of  moral  emptiness.  The  capacity  for 
distention  is  good  when  used  for  purposes  of  pul- 
monary inflation  or  of  aerial  navigation  :  but  it  is 
bad  when  it  takes  the  form  of  moral  flatulence. 

But,  although  the  Apostle  Paul  asserts  that 
knowledge  puifeth  up,  he  immediately  adds  that 
charity  edifieth — that  is,  love  buildeth  up.  I  love  iCor.vUi,  l 
this  word  "  build.'^  I  think  that  the  craft  of  mak- 
ino;  thino-s,  whether  in  the  world  of  matter  or  in 
the  world  of  spirit,  is  the  noblest  of  crafts.  And 
love  is  the  sublimest  of  builders.  Here  is  one  of 
the  differences  between  knowledge  and  love: 
Knowledge  expands  by  distention,  and  ends  in  col- 
lapse; love  expands  by  construction,  and  ends  in 
edifice.  Knowledge  swells  into  a  balloon:  love 
swells  into  a  minster.  While  knowledge  puffs  up, 
love  vaunts  not  herself,  but  builds  up.  Knowledge 
rears  Towers  of  Babel :  love  rears  the  Temple  of  God. 
Knowledge  is  atomic,  existins;  in  isolation  :  love  is 
molecular,  crystallizing  in  architecture.  And  yet 
even  knowledge  itself  may,  and  very  often  does, 
become  architectural ;  it  is  when  it  yields  itself  to  the 
guidance  of  love.  Ah!  here  is  the  real  office  of 
knowledge :  it  is  to  be  the  servant  of  love.  The 
true  science,  the  genuine  art — oh,  that  every  young 
student  here  may  understand  and  believe  it! — is 
to  know  how  to  build.  Here  is  the  acme  of 
human  genius  and  human  force;  here  is  the  cul- 
mination of  human  majesty.     As  Coleridge  sings: 


364  THE   TEN   COMMANDMENTS, 

&  T.  Coleridge.  'Tis  the  sublime  of  man, 

Our  noontide  majesty,  to  know  ourselves 
Parts  and  proportions  of  one  wondrous  whole  I 
This  fraternizes  man,  this  constitutes 
Our  charities  and  bearings. 

2  Peter  i,  5-7  In  jour  faith,  then,  young  gentlemen,  supply  vir- 
tue ;  and  in  your  virtue  knowledge ;  and  in  your 
knowledge  temperance  (self-control) ;  and  in  your 
temperance  patience ;  and  in  your  patience  godli- 
ness ;  and  in  your  godliness  love  of  the  brethren 
(love  of  the  church) ;  and  in  your  love  of  the 
brethren  love  (love  of  mankind,  philanthropy). 
Oh,  young  brothers,  engaged  in  academic  and 
professional  studies,  be  true  to  the  great  office  of 
knowledge;  subsidize  it  as  the  chief  minister  of 
love  and  society  building.  For  you  best  build 
yourself  when  you  build  others.  So  shall  the 
Lord  give  you,  as  he  gave  his  great  servant  Paul, 

2  Cor.  X,  8.  an  authority  for  building  up,  and  not  for  casting 
down. 

Love  the  Ar-  This,  then,  is  the  lesson  of  the  afternoon,  and 
Soidety.  "^^  indeed  of  this  entire  series.  Love  to  God,  or  the 
first  table  of  the  law,  and  love  to  man,  or  the  sec- 
ond table  of  the  law,  is  the  architect  of  human 
society,  even  that  sacred  fane  which  is  Jehovah's 

Eph.  ii,  20-22.  own  mighty  cathedral :  "  Built  upon  the  foundation 
of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Christ  Jesus  himself 
being  the  chief  corner  stone,  in  whom  each  several 
building,  fitly  framed  together,  groweth  into  a  holy 
temple  in  the  Lord,  in  whom  ye  are  also  builded 
together  for  a  habitation  of  God  in  the  Spirit.'* 
Heaven  grant  to  you  and  me  the  love  to  God  and 
the  love  to  man  which  shall  impel  us  so  to  use  our 


THE    lord's   SUM^ifARY.  365 

knowledge  that  we  shall  indeed  share  in  the  erec- 
tion of  God's  growing  temple  of  humanity.  Then, 
when  the  great  minster  shall  have  been  finished,  it 
will  be  seen  that  you  and  I  had  not  only  brought 
living  stones  to  the  one  living  corner  stone,  but  also  i  Peter  u,  5. 
that  you  and  I  are  ourselves  pillars  in  the  temple  Rev.  iii,  12. 
of  our  God ;  and  we  shall  go  out  thence  no  more. 
Thus  inwrought  by  divine  grace  into  that  perfected 
temple,  Ave  shall,  with  the  ransomed  and  glorified 
of  all  lands  and  ages,  forever  sing : 

Love  is  heaven,  and  heaven  is  love.  "Lay  of  Last 

Minstrel." 

O  Almighty  God,  who  hast  knit  together  thine  elect  in  one    Collect. 

communion  and  fellowship,  in  the  mystical  body  of  thy  Son 

Christ  our  Lord ;   Grant  us  grace  so  to  follow  thy  blessed 

saints  in  all  virtuous  and  godly  living,  that  we  may  come  to 

those  unspeakable  joys,  which  thou  hast  prepared  for  those 

who   unfeignedly  love  thee ;  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

Amen. 


THE    END. 


INDEX  OF  TOPICS. 


PAGE 

Abraham:  monotheism  one  of 

his  gifts  to  mankind....  47,  48 

Accumulation:    a    divine    in- 
stinct   306-309 

Adultery :      Christ's     doctrine 

of. 222-224 

Age:  golden:  business  activity 

of. 308,  309 

Allotment  of  Canaan 253,  323 

Altruism:     Christ's     doctrine 

of. 349,  352 

Anarchy:     a     mark     of    our 

times 24,  167-171 

Anger:  Christ's  doctrine  of,  197-208 
sometimes  right 193,  194 

Animals:  have  "souls" 179,189 

immortality  of. 191 

treatment  of. 188-191 

Anthropomorphism 62, 119,  120 

Antinomians:  modern 24, 169 

Antiquity:  plea  for 166,167 

Arbitration :    should    supplant 

war 205-208 

Art:  place  of  in  worship ,  56,  57 

Asceticism:     Christ's   doctrine 

of 222-224 

Atheism  :  Bacon's  cure  for 54 

Balance:    sense   of   a    test   of 

society 351,  352 

Bibliolatry 60 

Body:  a  parable  of  society „ 

327-329,  350,  351 

sacredness  of. 180, 181 

the  sphere  of  sin.. 226-229 

Bridal:  the  first 211-221 

Brotherhood  of  man 360,  361 

Calumny:  forms  of 281-286 

Canaan:  allotment  of 253,323 

Candid:  etymology  of. 289,290 

Capital:     problem     of     limit- 
ing   322-329 

Chambers  of  imagery.... 59,  60 


PAGE 

Character:  etymology  of. 299 

standard  of  the  Judgment..  68-70 
Chastity:  Christ's  doctrine  of 

222-224 
Child :  must  he  always  obey  ?  153, 154 
Christ :  his  contribution  to  soci- 
ology    356-358 

his  doctrine  of  adultery.  222-224 

altruism 344-352 

asceticism 231-235 

brotherhood 360,361 

chastity 222-224 

divorce 224-226 

forgiveness 197-208 

murder 192-197 

neighborhood 347-352 

non-resistance 197-208 

oaths 91-100 

sabbath 123-129 

society 349 

truthfulness 87-90 

words 299-302 

hate  of  hypocrisy.^ 89 

originality 225,226 

revelation  of  God 104, 105 

summaryof  decalogue,  341-355 

not  a  civic  lawgiver 201, 202 

the  coming  Man 207,208 

I  AM  of  Old  Testament,  37-39 

image  of  God 78 

manifested  Father 38 

pivot  of  creation 361 

true  bridegroom 237-243 

emancipator 43-45 

language 301 

sabbath 145 

to  be  worshiped 78 

under  law  of  heredity 77 

Christianity:  morality  looking 

Godward 149 

Church:  a  single  personality,  42,43 

definition  of. 42 

the  true  bride 237-243 

Israel 40-43 

367 


368 


INDEX   OF    TOPICS. 


PAGE 

Church :  unity  of. 42, 43, 240, 241 

Corban:  meaning  of 152 

Covetousness :  folly  of. 333 

origin  of. 320 

perils  of. 315-320 

Debt:  etymology  of 271,272 

Decalogue:  a  divine  covenant,  20,21 

a  divine  revelation 23 

affirmative  in  meaning 20,21 

anachronism  of. 23,24 

Christ's  summary  of 341-355 

convicting  power  of. 17-20 

division  of 149,150 

etymology  of. 20 

germinal  in  character 21-23 

history  of 14-16 

immortal  in  principle 23 

pertinent  to  our  times 24 

prohibitive  in  form 17-20 

two  tables  of 149, 150 

Devil:  etymology  of. 284 

Divorce:  Christ's  doctrine  of.... 

224-226 
Dualism  in  Christendom 45 

Ecelesiolatry 60 

Eden:  birthplace  of  industry  112-114 

charter  of. 247-250 

Education:  purpose  of. 362-364 

Elohim:  meaning  of. 31,32 

Equilibrium  of  society 351,352 

Evil:  problem  of. 314 

Excesses:  suicidal 186 

Falsehood :  guilt  of..... 96-99, 285, 286 
"Finished";  a  divine  word,  120,121 

Foeticide 185 

Forgiveness:    Christ's  doctrine 

of. 197-208 

.Gehenna:  meaning  of. 232 

God:  unity  of. 342 

Golden  Age 207,308,309 

Golden  Rule 357,361 

Golden  Year 361 

Good  Samaritan:  parable  of,  347-349 

Heredity :  accounts  for  heathen- 
ism      66 

for  sinfulness 65,66 


PAGB 

Heredity:  apparent  exceptions 

to 64 

hope  for  foreign  missions...  73, 74 

hope  of  society 71-74 

Jews,  a  striking  sample  of.....    65 

merciful  aspect  of 72-74 

merciless  aspect  of. 64-67 

neither  cruel  nor  unjust....  70-72 
not  inconsistent  with  respon- 
sibility   67-70 

Sinaitic  announcement  of,  63,  64 
Heroism :     summons    to    per- 
sonal   76,  77 

Husbands:  duties  of 238 

Hypocrisy:  guilt  of. 88,89 

I  AM 30,31,39 

Iconoclasm 58 

Idiosyncrasy:  lawlessness  of ....  169 

Idiosyncrasies:  national 34 

Idolatry    compared     to     adul- 
tery   62,  63, 67 

origin  of. 54 

stupidity  of. 57,58 

Image-worship:  samples  of....  60,61 
Imagination:  to  be  cultivated...  56 
Individualism :  lawlessness  of...  170 

Infanticide 185 

Innovation:    a    mark    of    our 

times 162-167 

Intemperance:  lawlessness  of... 

168, 169 

murderous 185, 186 

Irreligion:  the  typical  theft 273 

Israel:  a  single  personality...  33,34 

Jealousy:  Jehovah's 62,63 

statue  of. 63 

Jehovah:  a  jealous  God 62,63 

his  unity 342 

Israel's  husband 62, 63 

meaning  of 2^33 

Jews :  a  single  personality 33, 34 

example  of  heredity 65 

Journalism:    responsibility  of, 

294-297 

Jubilee:  year  of. 323-327 

Knowledge:  pufFeth  up 362-363 

the  minister  of  love 363,364 


INDEX   OF    TOPICS. 


369 


PAGE 

Labor:  the  basis  of  property 

249-251,  310 

Lamb:  wrath  of. 194 

Laud :  private  ownership  of,  311, 312 
Landmarks:  samples  of  remov- 
ing   267-270 

Language :  bridge  of  society...  87, 88 

covenant  of  society 278,  279 

power  of. 291,294 

sacredness  of 87,  88 

standard  of  the  judgment  294-302 

wonderfulness  of. 277,278 

Lawlessness:    a  mark   of  our 

age 24, 167-171 

Lex  talionis 199,200,285,286 

Lie:  guilt  of. 87,88,96-99 

Life:  a  matter  of  boundaries  252-254 

origin  of. 177-180 

sacredness  of. 178-181, 189 

Limitations  of  man 252-254 

property ~  254,255 

Longevity:  promoted  by  duti- 

fulness 157-159 

Love:  architect  of  society....  363,364 

Christ's  doctrineof 

197,208,341-355 
mediating  ether  of  the  moral 
universe 355 

Man  and  Woman :  community 

of. 214-216 

diversity  of. 216-219 

unity  of. 214-219 

Man:  basis  of  sabbath 12:3-131 

greater  than  sabbath 132-138 

his      dominion     over     na- 
ture    247-249 

primal  charter 247-249 

image  of  God 181 

limitations  of 252-254 

needs  sabbath  for  his  relig- 
ious nature 127 

secular  nature 123-127 

origin  of. 177-180 

Marriage :  a  divine  institution, 

219-226 
topic   of,  pertinent   to    our 

times 226 

type  of  Christ  and  Church...  235 


PACK 

Monogamy:  law  of  Eden 225,241 

Monopoly:  lawlessness  of 169 

Monotheism:    basal    stone    of 

Christianity 342 

gift  of  Jew  to  mankind 46-48 

Morality:  Christianity  looking 

manward 149 

Murder :  a  state  rather  than  an 

act 195-197 

Christ's  definition  of 191-197 

forms  of. 182-191 

sacrilegiousness  of. 181 

Name  of  God :  a  gradual  reve- 
lation   39-42 

meaning  of  phrase 83 

Scriptural  frequency  of.....  85,  86 

Names  of  God 29-33,  37, 42 

Nation:   a   single   personality 

34,  74-76 

of  mankind 359-362 

Nations:  idiosyncrasies  of. 34 

Neighborhood :     Christ's     doc- 
trine of. 347-;352 

Non-resistance:    Christ's    doc- 
trine of. ~  197-208 

Oaths :  Christ's  doctrine  of..  91-100 

Occupations:  murderous 185,186 

Origin  of  evil 314 

Original  Sin :  doctrine  of,  scien- 
tific     67 

Ownership:  right  of. 252 

Parent:  duties  of. 154-156 

symbol  of  God 171-173 

symbol  of  State 159-162 

Parentage:  inherently  authori- 
tative  153 

Parricide:    Roman    name    for 

traitor 159, 160 

Past:  an  oracle 164-166 

same  as  present 162-164 

Patria  potestas 158 

Paul:    warmth  of  his  encomi- 
ums   287,288 

Pauperism:     work     the     cure 

of 113,114 

Perjury :  sacrilegiousness  of.. .88, 281 


370 


INDEX    OF    TOPICS. 


PAGE 

Peter:  his  sudden  profanity 91 

Piety :  Roman  conception  of,  150, 151 
Pistol :  should  be  abolished  183, 184 
Polytheism:  in  Christendom....    45 

Present :  harvest  of  past 164 

Profanity:  idiotic 96 

sacrilegious 95 

vulgar 96 

IVoperty:  a  divine  institution..  249 

basis  of 250 

differentiates  men 252 

limitations  of 254,255 

origin  of 252 

out.growtli  of  civilization 251 

problem  of  limiting 322-328 

Eechabites:  tribe  of,  still  sur- 
viving   157,  158 

Religion :  morality  looking  God- 
ward 149 

Rest:  Creator's 119,122 

duty  of 114,117 

Retaliation :  Mosaic 199,  200 

Reverence :   should  be  cultiva- 
ted   105-107 

Sabbath:  a  day  of  rest 114, 117 

a  divine  appointment  129 

a  means,  not  end 123-131 

a  question  of  our  age 141 

changed    from  Saturday  to 

Sunday 141-145 

Christ's  doctrine  of. 12:3-128 

God's  symbolic  toll 117 

legislation 126, 127 

secret  of  victory 141 

true  method  of  keeping..  138, 141 

Sabbaths:  three  great 122 

Satan  :  prince  of  slanderers  284,  285 

Self-defense:  problem  of 204,205 

Seven:  a  sacred  number 115-117 

Simplicity:  etymology  of. 290 

Sin:  pedigree  Of. 314 

Sinai:  description  of. 11 

Sincerity:  etymology  of 290 

Slander:  guilt  of 281-284 

Society:  a  moral  balance....  351,352 

a  moral  personality 322 

Christ's  doctrine  of. 349-351 


PAGE 

Society;    compared    to    bodily 

organism 327-329 

heredity  the  hope  of 71,  72 

test  of  character 355 

Sociology :  Christ's  contribution 

to 356-358 

Stealing:    a    common    tempta- 
tion     ....  255-257 

origin  of 256,257 

samples  of  corporate    ..    263-270 

samples  of  official 262,  263 

samples  of  private 258-262 

Suicide:  guilt  of 184,185 

Sunday:     the    Christian    Sab- 
bath   141-145 

Tolstoi:  literalism  of. 203 

Tritheism:  in  Christendom 45 

Trust:  degradation  of  the  word  266 
Truth:  freeing  power  of 43,44 

Unity  of  Christ  and  Church 

42,  43,  240,  241 

God 342 

man  and  woman 214-219 

Vivisection:  question  of. 190 

War:  question  of 205-208 

Wealth:    problem    of   limiting 

322-328 

Wives:  duties  of. 238 

Woman:  origin  of. 211-213 

place  of 237-239 

Words:  immortal 100,101 

our  judges 294-302 

power  of 291-294 

reveal  character 297-299 

Work :  basis  of  property  249-251,  310 

cure  of  pauperism 113,114 

duty  of 112-114 

man's  primal  condition 112 

Worship:  an  instinct 53,54 

duty  of 117 

must  be  spiritual 57 

must  be  undivided 343-345 

Wrath  of  Lamb 194 

Year  of  Jubilee 32;3-327 


INDEX  OF  PRINCIPAL  SCRIPTURES. 


PAGE 

Genesis  i,  26-28 247-251 

Genesis  ii,  1-3 118-123 

Genesis  ii,  7 „  177-180 

Genesis  ii,  7-J5 112-114 

Genesis  ii,  18-25 211-221 

Genesis  iii,  19 178 

Genesis  v,  3 65,  66 

Genesis  xvi,  13, 14. 100 

Genesis  xxi,  31 100 

Genesis  xxxii,  22-32 102 

G^enesis  xlix,  1-27 65 


Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 
Exodus 


iii,  1-15 30-33 

xix,  1-25 12,  13 


XX,  1-3. 
XX,  4-6.. 
XX,  7 


31 

29-50 

51-79 

81-107 

XX,  8-11 109-145 

XX,  12 147-174 

XX,  13 175-208 

XX,  14 210-243 

XX,  15 246-274 

XX,  16 276-302 

XX,  17 304-332 

xxi,  23-25.... 199,  200 

xxxi,  12-17 130 

xxxii,  4 46 

xxxiii,  18-23 102 

xxxiv,  5-8 102,  103 

xxxiv,  14 63 


Leviticus  xix,  18 346-352 

Leviticus  xxv,  8-55 323-325 

Numbers  xxxiii,  54 253 

Deuteronomy  iv,  15-19 58,  59 

Deuteronomy  v,  15  130 

Deuteronomy  vi,  4,5 341-343 

Deuteronomy  xxii,8 187,  188 

Deuteronomy  xxvii,  17. 268-270 

Deuteronomy  xxxii,  8,9 254 


PAGB 

Joshua  xxiv,  1-28 36 

1  Samuel  xii,  1-5 319 

1  Samuel  xxv,  1-13 318 

1  Kings  xviii,  19-39 32 

1  Kings  xxi,  1-16 317 

Job  xxxi,  24-28 61,  315,  316 

Psalm  viii,5-9 132,  249 

Psalm  XV,  1-5 331 

Psalm  xvi,  5,  6 254 

Psalm  xlv,  1-17 63 

Psalm  Ixxxvi,  11,  12 50 

Psalm  cxxvii,  2 213 

Proverbs  iii,  28 260 

Proverbs  xi,  15 2(50 

Proverbs  xi,  25 2()5 

Proverbs  xi,  26 265 

Proverbs  xvi,  33 254 

Proverbs  xx,  14 259 

Proverbs  xxx,  7-9 321 

Isaiah  xxxi,  1 126, 127 

Isaiah  xl,  3-5 352 

Isaiah  xliv,9-20 57,58 

Isaiah  liv,5 62,63 

Isaiah  Iviii,  6,  7 140 

Jeremiah  xxxv,  18, 19 157, 158 

Ezekiel  viii,  3-12 59 

Ezekiel  xviii,  1-31 G8-70 

Ezekiel  xx,  12. 130 

Hosea  vi,  6 134 

Micah  vi,  6-8 351,  355 

Habakkuk  ii,ll 183 

Zechariah  iv,  6 127 

Malachi  iii,  8,  9 273 

371 


372 


INDEX  OF    PRINCIPAL   SCRIPTURES. 


PAGE 

Matthew  v,  21,  22 192-197 

Matthew  v,  27-32 222-235 

Matthew  v,  33-37 90-100 

Matthew  v,  38-48 197-208 

Matthew  vi,  6-13 360 

Matthew  vi,  24 50, 343-345 

Matthew  vii,  12 357,358 

Matthew  xii,  1-8 133, 134 

Matthew  xii,  9-14 134,135 

Matthew  xii,  34-37 97 

Matthew  xii,  37 272,299 

Matthew  xv,  3-6 151-152 

Matthew  xv,  6 33 

Matthew  xv,  19 195,  222,  314 

Matthew  xvi,  4 63 

Matthew  xviii,20 39,  86 

Matthew  xix,3-12 220-226 

Matthew  xxii,  15-22 201,335-337 

Matthew  xxii,  23-33 337,338 

Matthew  xxii,  34-40 339-365 

Matthew  xxiii,  16-22 89,99 

Matthew  xxiii,  34-36 75 

Matthew  xxvi,  73 299,302 

Matthew  xxviii,  1 144 

Matthew  xxviii,  20 39 

Mark  ii,27,28 123-137 

Mark  iv,  19 321 

Mark  vii, 9-13 151,152 

Mark  vii,  31-34 294 

Mark  vii,  21,  22 222,223 

Mark  viii,  34-37 233 

Mark  ix,  43-48 232 

Mark  x,  2-12 22^226 

Mark  xii,  28-34 339-365 

Mark  xiv,  66-71 91 

Luke  iii,  38 132, 180 

Luke  vi,  31 349 

Luke  X,  25-37 347-349 

Luke  xii,  13-21 201,202,329 

Luke  xiii,  10-17 135, 136 

Luke  xiv,  1-6 136 

Luke  xvi,  9 332 

Luke  xvi,  10 267 

Lukexix,  29-34 308 

Luke  xxiv,  5, 6 145 

John  i,  1 104, 105 

John  1,18 38,104 


PAGE 

John  i,47 288 

John  iii,  6 64 

John  iv,24 57 

John  V,  1-18 136,137 

John  V,  17 119,122 

John  vii,  21-24 137 

John  viii,  31-36 43-45 

John  viii,  58 39 

John  ix,  2 65 

John  xiv,  1-10 103 

John  xiv,  8-10 38 

John  xvii,24 39 

John  xviii,  22,23 203 

John  xix,30 , 121 

Acts  xvii,  22-31 67 

Acts  xvii,  23 121 

Acts  xvii,  26 253,  360, 361 

Romans  i,  14 352 

Romans  ii,  28,  29 41,42 

Romans  iv,  20 17 

Romans  v,  12 66 

Romans  vii,  7-13 17-20 

Romans  viii,  2 45 

Romans  viii,  17 132. 173 

Romans  xiii,  8 27J 

Romans  xiv,  5 131 

Romans  xiv,  12 70 

1  Corinthians  vi,  15-20 180 

1  Corinthians  vi,  19 180 

1  Corinthians  viii,l 362-364 

1  Corinthians  viii,  4^6 46 

1  Corinthians  xi,  11, 12 218 

1  Corinthians  xii,  11-26 327,350 

1  Corinthians  xii,  27 42 

1  Corinthians  xiii,  1-3 346,347 

1  Corinthians  xiii,  9-12 290 

1  Corinthians  xv,  56 18 

2  Corinthians  iii,  3 16 

2  Corinthians  iv,4-6 104 

2  Corinthians  viii,  14 351  352 

2  Corinthians  viii,  15 329 

2  Corinthians  x,4 209 

2  Corinthians  x,  8 296,  364 

2  Corinthians  xi,  2, 3 63, 2;^,  241 


INDEX  OF    PRINCIPAL   SCRIPTURES. 


373 


PAGE 

Galalians  iii,  24 315 

Galatians  iii,  28 43,  216 

Galatians  vl,  7 64 

Ephesians  iv,  13 240 

Ephesians  iv,  25 88,  97,  279,  322 

349,  350,  357 

Ephesians  iv,  26,  27 193,  194 

Ephesians  iv,  28 272 

Ephesians  v,  22-33 63,  236-239 

Ephesians  vi,  1-4 154-155 

Philippians  ii,  4 351 

Colossians  i,  15 104 

Culossians  ii,  16,  17 131 

Colossians  ii,  20-23 231 

Colossians  iii,  2 43 

Colossians  iii,  20-21 154,155 

Colossians  iv,  6 289,291 

2  Thessalonians  ii,  3-12.....' 171 

2  Thessalonians  iii,  10 114 

1  Timothy  i,  8,  9 19 

1  Timothy  v,  13 2S2 

1  Timothy  vi,  7-11 319,320 


PAGE 

Hebrews  i,  3 ~ 104 

Hebrews  i,  6 78 

Hebrews  ii,  14-18 77 

Hebrews  ix,  19,  20 21 

Hebrews  iv,  1-10 122, 123 

Hebrews  iv,  12,  13 223,314 

Hebrews  xiii,  8 39 

James  i,  13-15 314 

James  ii,  10 22 

James  ii,  13 73 

James  iii,  1-9 293 

James  iii,  9 185 

James  v,  12 98 

1  Peter  i,  4 173 

2  Peter  i,4 173 

2  Peter  iu,  8 74 

1  John  iii,  15 195 

1  John  iv,  7-21 354 

Eevelation  i,  8 39 

Revelation  vi,  16 194 

Revelation  xii,  7-10 285 

Revelation  xix,  6-9 63,  242,  243 


INDEX  OF  PRINCIPAL  AUTHORS. 


PAGE 

^schylus :      "  Zeus,     whoever 

thou  art" 104 

Agassiz :  On  immortality  of  ani- 
mals   191 

Alcoran :  "  "When  a  man  dies, 
they  who  survive  him 
ask  what  property  has 
he  left."    (Footnote) 332 

Aratus:  "We  are  also  his  oflF- 

spring  " 57 

Aristotle:  "Of   all  wars,  those 

are  most  necessary  " 357 

"  To  die  in  order  to  avoid  the 
pains  of  poverty" 185 

Augustine:  On  the  origin  of  the 

Church 239, 240 

"  Quisquis  amat  dictis  ahsen- 
tem  roderevitara" 283 

Bacon:  His  prayer 106,107 

On  atheism 54 

On  innovation 165 

Bonar :  "Ascend,  Beloved,  to  the 

joy" 243 

Briggs:    On    the    term     "Jah- 

veh" 31 

Broadus:    Footnote   on    Matt. 

xxii,  38 3J5 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas:  On  his- 
tory repeating  itself 163 

Browning,  Elizabeth  B. :  "  Of  ail 
the  thoughts  of  God  that 
are  borne  inward." 213 

Browning,  Robert :  "  God  made 
all  the  creatures  and  gave 
thera  our  love" 191 

Bulwer:  "More  royalty  in  wo- 
man's heart" 214 

Burke:  On  innovation 166 

On  journalism 206 

Burns:  "  The  Cotter's  Saturday 

Night  " 156 


PAGE 

Bushnell:  On  sin  and   disease 

186,  187 
"  Outpopulating  power  of  the 

Christian  stock" 74 

"Eoutine  observance  indis- 
pensable"   139 

Carlyle:  "History  is  the  essence 
of  innumerable  biogra- 
phies"     34 

On  hero  worship  and  Chris- 
tianity     61 

Chrysostom:  "  The  true  Shechi- 

n:ih  is  man" 181 

Cicero :  "  A  sensuous  and  intem- 
perate youthhood  trans- 
mits to  old  age" 186 

Coke:  Definition  of  murder 182 

Coleridge :  "  Farewell,  fare- 
well!  but  this  I  tell" 191 

"•Tis       the      sublime       of 

man" 346 

Colton :  His  apothegm  on  words. 

(Footnote) 87 

Copernicus :  "  Non  parem  Pauli 

gratiam  requiro" 106 

Cowper:  "I  would  not  en- 
ter    on      my      list      of 

friends" 190,191 

"Sworn  on  every  slight  pre- 
tense"     94 

"  There  is  yet  a  liberty  un- 
sung " 45 

Dana:  "Deus  fecit" 106 

Draper:  "On  the  physiological 

benefit  of  Sabbath" 124 

Edmeston :  "  When  will  my  pil- 
grimage be  done?" 123 

Eliot,  George  :  "  There  are  glan- 
ces of   hatred   that  stab 

and  raise  no  cry" 284 

Elton:  On  Colossians  iv,  6....29I,292 

375 


376 


INDEX  OF    PRINCIPAL   AUTHORS. 


PAGE 

Emerson  :  "  No  greater  calamity 
can  befall  a  nation  than 

loss  of  worship" 105 

"Sunday  is  the  core  of  our 
civilization  " 127 

Fairbairn  :  On  the  distinction 
between  Elohim  and  Jeho- 
vah  31,32 

Galen:  His  vocation  "a  relig- 
ious hymn  in  honor  of  his 
Creator  " 105 

Gelkie :  On  the  tribe  of  Eecha- 

bites 158 

Gibbon:   On  the  Golden  Eule 

357,  358 

Girdlestone:  On  the  difficulty  of 
translating  the  name  of 
God 84 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew :  "A  Sabbath 

well  spent" 139 

Harris:    On    duties   of  editors 

of  journals 297 

Hildebert:  "  Alpha  et  n  magna 

Deus  " 49 

Holmes:  "A  man  is  an  omni- 
bus, in  which  all  his  an- 
cestors are  seated" 65 

Hooker:  "Oflawtherecanbeno 
less  acknowledged  than 
that  her" 173 

Horace:    "Vixere   fortes   ante 

Agamemnona" 165 

Isocrates:  Declared  by  Gibbon 
to  have  anticipated  the 
Golden  Rule 358 

Jefferson:  "That  the  best  gov- 
erned country  which  is 
least  governed  " 326 

Justin :  His  description  of"  Sun- 
day " 141, 142 

Keble:  "Where  all  around,  on 

mountain,  sea,  and  sky  "..    11 

Kepler:  His  prayer 106 

Kynaston:  "First  and  Last  of 

faith's  receiving" 48,  49 

Leathes :  On  taking  God's  name 

in  vain.    (Footnote) 87 

Logan :  "  Joy,  and  Temperance, 

and  Repose" 186 


PAGE 

Longfellow :  "  Down  the  dark 
future,  through  long  gen- 
erations " 208 

"I  shot  an   arrow   into  the 

air  " 278 

"Sunday  is  the  golden  clasp"  130 
Lowell:  "In  vain  we  call  old  no- 
tions fudge  " 261 

Luther :  "  If  I  have  a  picture  of 
Christ  in  my  heart,  why 

notone  on  " CO 

"  You  cannot  prevent  the  de- 
vil from  shooting  arrows 

of  evil" 235 

Macaulay:  On  economic  value 

of  Sabbath 124,  125 

On  power  of  the  incarnation    78 
"Then  none  was  for  a  party"  273 
Machiavelli:   On  the  constant 

renovation  of  the  State...  325 

Maimonides:  On  oaths 91 

Marsh:  On  the  verb  "ought." 

(Footnote) 271,  272 

Martial :  "  When  all  the  bland- 
ishments    of      life     are 

gone  " 1S5 

Milton  :  "  Above  the  smoke  and 

stir  of  this  dim  spot" 307 

"Airy  tongues,  that  syllable 

men's  names" 101 

"  Earth     felt    the     Avound ; 
and    Nature   from    her 

seat " 227 

"  Let  none  admire  that  riches 

,  grow  in  Hell" 321 

"  Mammon  led  them  on  " 257 

"With  her  best  nurse,  Con- 
templation " 127 

Mulford:   On    the    ground    of 

right  to  property 250,  251 

Miiller:  On  Semitic  monothe- 
ism   47,  48 

Neale:  "He  that  is  wont  to  slan- 
der absent  men  " 283 

Novalis:  On  the  sacredness  of 

the  human  body 181 

Perronet:  "All  hail  the  power 

of  Jesus'  name" 78,  79 

Plato :  On  unspoken  soliloquy...  298 


INDEX  OF    PRINCIPAL   AUTHORS. 


377 


PAGE 

Plautus :  "  Homines  qui  gestant, 
quique  auscultant  crimi- 

na" 282 

"Homo  homini   ignoto   lu- 
pus " 357 

Plumptre :  On  progressive  reve- 
lation of  God's  uame....  39^42 
Plutarch :  On  universality  of  the 

religious  idea 53 

Pope :  "  Damn  with  faint  praise, 

assent  with  civil  leer  " 300 

"  In  quibbles  angel  and  arch- 
angel join  " 340 

"  We  think  our  fathers  fools, 

so  wise  we  grow" 167 

"  Who  dares   to  think    one 
thing,  and  another  tell  'L    88 
Proudhon  :  "  La  propri6t6,  c'est 

level" 329 

Eobertson:  On  deadly  poison  of 

slander.    (Footnote) 280 

Robinson,    George:    "Head   of 

thy  Church  beneath" 242 

Eobin son,  John:  On  Church  and 

State.    (Footnote) 126,127 

Scott:    "Love    is  heaven,  and 

heaven  is  love  " 365 

On  effectiveness  of  mere  in- 
tonation. (Footnote) 284 

Bhakspeare:    "A     little    more 
than  kin,  and  less  than 

kind"  (Footnote) 72 

"Ay,   sir;    to  be  honest,  as 

this  world  goes  " 255 

"Chaste  as  the  icicle" 235 

"Good  name,  in    man    and 

woman,  dear,  my  lord  "....  282 
"  Hath  not  a  Jew  eyes?  hath 

not  a  Jew  hands  " 189 

"His   words  are  bonds,  his 

oaths  are  oracles  " 286 

"How  sharper  than  a    ser- 
pent's tooth  it  is  " 151 

"  I  will  speak  daggers  to  her, 

but  use  none  "(Footnote).  297 
"P     the    commonwealth    I 

■would  by  contraries"  251,252 
"If  thou  art  rich,  thou  art 
poor  " 330 


PAGE 

Shakspeare :  "  In  such  indexes, 

although  small  pricks  "...  171 

"Ingratitude,  thou  marble- 
hearted  fiend  " 151 

"Murder,  though  it  have  no 
tongue,  will  speak  " 183 

"  O  Rosalind  I  these  trees 
shall  be  my  books" 298 

"  Put  in  every  honest  hand  a 
whip  " 239 

"That  was,  to  this, Hyperion 
to  a  satyr" 180 

"  The  shrug,  the  hum,  the  ha 
(these  petty  brands) " 
(Footnote) 284 

"This  above  all;  to  thine 
own  self  be  true" 98 

"  This  muddy  vesture  of  de- 
cay"   178 

"  What  shall  I  need  to  draw 
my  sword?  the  paper"...  293 

"You  taught  me  language; 

and  my  profit  on't  " 96 

Smith:     "Labor    the    original 

purchase  money  " 31Q 

Southey:  "Down  on  his  knees 

the  bishop  fell  " 266 

Stanley:    "Domesday  Book  of 

Palestine  " 253 

Sterne:    "The  accusing  Spirit, 
which  flew  up  to  heaven's 

chancery  " 101 

Strong:  On  pictures  of  Christ 

(Footnote).. 60 

Tennyson:  "All  men's  good  be 

each  man's  rule" 361 

"  But  spiritual  presenti- 
ments" 290 

"  For  woman  is  not  unde- 
velopt  man  " -  218, 219 

"His  honor  rooted  in  dis- 
honor stood" 98 

"  Keen  through  w^ordy  snares 
to  track" ..  335 

"  Let  there  be  light,  and  there 
was  light;    tisso" 120 

"  Men,  my  brothers,  men 
the  workers,  ever  reap- 
ing " 359 


378 


INDEX  OF    TRINCIPAL   AUTHORS. 


PAGE 

Tennyson:    "Ring    out,    wild 

bells,  to  the  wild  sky  "  361, 362 
"That  a  lie  which  is  half  a 
truth  is  ever  the  blackest 

of" 286 

"  The  baby  new  to  earth  and 

sky  " 253 

"With    all    his   conscience, 
and  one  eye  askew  " 88 

Trumbull:  Ou  Oriental  use 
of  term  "  father  "  (Foot- 
note)   159 

TurnbuU :  "  He  that  doth  love 
with  bitter  speech  the  ab- 
sent to  defame  " 283 

Unknown:  "I'm  apt  to  think 

the  man  " 355 

Vaughan:  "Bright  shadows  of 
true  rest !  Some  shoots  of 
bliss" 128, 129 


PAGE 

Virgil :  "  Fama,  malum  qua  non 

aliud     velocius     ullum '' 

(Footnote) 293 

Washington:  "An  honest  man  "  271 
Watts:    "God  is  a  spirit,  just 

and  wise" 89 

"Had    I     the     tongues    of 

Greeks  and  Jews" 347 

"  Let  bears  and  lions  growl 

and  fight" 206 

Webster,  D. :   On   the  sense  of 

obligation  to  God 172 

Webster,     N.:     Definition     of 

"  cornei'ing  " 264 

Wesley:    "Hail,    the    Lord    of 

earth  and  heaven  " 145 

"Not    from     his    head    be 

woman  took" 214 

Wordsworth :  "  I'd  rather  be  a 

Pagan,  suckled  in  a  creed 

outworn  " 105 


.JiV^_:l;vt(i:^*?grv^»A, 


Date  Due 


*v  •^  |H 


